On‐Demand Reconfiguration of Nanomaterials: When Electronics Meets Ionics

• Published in: Advanced materials (Weinheim) 2018-01, Vol.30 (1), p.n/a
• Main Authors: Lee, Jihang, Lu, Wei D.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Chemical composition; Computation; Computer memory; Ion distribution; magnetoelectric effect; Materials science; memristive systems; Multifunctional materials; Nanomaterials; neuromorphic computing; Physical properties; plasmonic switching; Reconfiguration; resistive switching
• ISSN: 0935-9648; 1521-4095
• DOI: 10.1002/adma.201702770

Rapid advances in the semiconductor industry, driven largely by device scaling, are now approaching fundamental physical limits and face severe power, performance, and cost constraints. Multifunctional materials and devices may lead to a paradigm shift toward new, intelligent, and efficient computing systems, and are being extensively studied. Herein examines how, by controlling the internal ion distribution in a solid‐state film, a material's chemical composition and physical properties can be reversibly reconfigured using an applied electric field, at room temperature and after device fabrication. Reconfigurability is observed in a wide range of materials, including commonly used dielectric films, and has led to the development of new device concepts such as resistive random‐access memory. Physical reconfigurability further allows memory and logic operations to be merged in the same device for efficient in‐memory computing and neuromorphic computing systems. By directly changing the chemical composition of the material, coupled electrical, optical, and magnetic effects can also be obtained. A survey of recent fundamental material and device studies that reveal the dynamic ionic processes is included, along with discussions on systematic modeling efforts, device and material challenges, and future research directions. By controlling the internal ion distribution in a solid‐state film, the material's chemical composition and physical (i.e., electrical, optical, and magnetic) properties can be reversibly reconfigured, in situ, using an applied electric field. The reconfigurability is achieved in a wide range of materials, and can lead to the development of new memory, logic, and multifunctional devices and systems.