event
Thursday 27 Feb 2014: Resistive switching in silicon oxides - physics and applications
Professor Tony Kenyon - Photonic Materials Laboratory, UCL
HAR/170 (3D Visualisation Suite) 14:00-15:00
Our group at UCL recently demonstrated a redox-based resistive switch exploiting the formation of conductive filaments in bulk silicon-rich silicon oxide. Our devices exhibit multi-level switching and analogue modulation of resistance as well as standard two-level switching. We demonstrate different operational modes (bipolar and unipolar switching) that make it possible to dynamically adjust device properties. Scanning tunnelling microscopy (STM), atomic force microscopy (AFM), and conductive atomic force microscopy (C-AFM) measurements provide a more detailed insight into both the location and the dimensions of the conductive filaments. I will discuss aspects of conduction and switching mechanisms and propose a physical model of resistive switching in our system. In addition, we have also demonstrated room temperature quantisation of conductance in silicon oxide resistive switches, implying ballistic transport of electrons through a quantum constriction associated with an individual silicon filament in the SiOx bulk.
