Molecular dynamics simulations of oxide memory resistors (memristors)

Reversible bipolar nano-switches that can be set and read electronically in a solid-state two-terminal device are very promising for applications. We have performed molecular- dynamics simulations that mimic systems with oxygen vacancies interacting via realistic potentials and driven by an external bias voltage. The competing short- and long-range interactions among charged mobile vacancies lead to density fluctuations and short-range ordering, while illustrating some aspects of observed experimental behavior, such as memristor polarity inversion. The simulations show that the ``localized conductive filaments'' and ``uniform push/pull'' models for memristive switching are actually two extremes of one stochastic mechanism [1]. \\[4pt] [1] S. E. Savel'ev, A. S. Alexandrov, A. M. Bratkovsky, R. Stanley Williams, arXiv:1010.5656v1