Resistive switching in reverse: voltage driven formation of a transverse insulating barrier

Abstract

Application of an electric stimulus to a material with a metal-insulator transition can trigger a large resistance change. Resistive switching from an insulating into a metallic phase, which typically occurs by the formation of conducting filaments parallel to the current flow, has been an active research topic. Here we present the discovery of an opposite, metal-to-insulator switching that proceeds via nucleation and growth of an insulating barrier perpendicular to the driving current. The barrier formation leads to an unusual N-type negative differential resistance in the current-voltage characteristics. Electrically inducing a transverse barrier enables a novel approach to voltage-controlled magnetism. By triggering a metal-to-insulator resistive switching in a magnetic material, local on/off control of ferromagnetism can be achieved by a global voltage bias applied to the whole device.

References in corpus (2)

• Training and Operation of an Integrated Neuromorphic Network Based on Metal-Oxide Memristors
• Direct observation of the electrically triggered Insulator-Metal transition in V3O5 far below the transition temperature

Cited by in corpus (7)

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• Voltage control of spin resonance in phase change materials
• Coexistance of volatile and non-volatile memristive effects in phase-separated La${}_{0.5}$Ca${}_{0.5}$MnO${}_3$-based devices
• Dynamic nanoscale spatial heterogeneity in a perovskite to brownmillerite topotactic phase transformation
• Volatile resistive-switched state in a bulk organic conductor with a sharp metal-insulator transition