Ferroelectric Tunnel Junctions: Modulations on the Potential Barrier

Anyone who ever took an electronics laboratory class will be familiar with the fundamental passive circuit elements: the resistor, the capacitor and the inductor. However, in 1971 Leon Chua reasoned from symmetry arguments that there should be a fourth fundamental element, which he called a memristor (short for memory resistor). Although he showed that such an element has many interesting and valuable circuit properties, until now no one has presented either a useful physical model or an example of a memristor. Here we show, using a simple analytical example, that memristance arises naturally in nanoscale systems in which solid-state electronic and ionic transport are coupled under an external bias voltage. These results serve as the foundation for understanding a wide range of hysteretic current-voltage behaviour observed in many nanoscale electronic devices that involve the motion of charged atomic or molecular species, in particular certain titanium dioxide cross-point switches.

Long viewed as a topic in classical physics, ferroelectricity can be described by a quantum mechanical ab initio theory. Thin-film nanoscale device structures integrated onto Si chips have made inroads into the semiconductor industry. Recent prototype applications include ultrafast switching, cheap room-temperature magnetic-field detectors, piezoelectric nanotubes for microfluidic systems, electrocaloric coolers for computers, phased-array radar, and three-dimensional trenched capacitors for dynamic random access memories. Terabit-per-square-inch ferroelectric arrays of lead zirconate titanate have been reported on Pt nanowire interconnects and nanorings with 5-nanometer diameters. Finally, electron emission from ferroelectrics yields cheap, high-power microwave devices and miniature x-ray and neutron sources.