On-Demand Nanodevice with Electrical and Neuromorphic Multifunction Realized by Local Ion Migration

A potential route to extend Moore's law beyond the physical limits of existing materials and device architectures is to achieve nanotechnology breakthroughs in materials and device concepts. Here, we discuss an on-demand WO3-x-based nanoionic device where electrical and neuromorphic multifunctions are realized through externally induced local migration of oxygen ions. The device is found to possess a wide range of time scales of memorization, resistance switching, and rectification varying from volatile to permanent in a single device, and these can furthermore be realizable in both two- or three-terminal systems. The gradually changing volatile and nonvolatile resistance states are experimentally demonstrated to mimic the human brain's forgetting process for short-term memory and long-term memory. We propose this nanoionic device with its on-demand electrical and neuromorphic multifunction has a unique paradigm shifting potential for the fabrication of configurable circuits, analog: memories, digital-neural fused networks, and more in one device architecture.