Two-dimensional materials based volatile memristors mediated by flexoelectric effect

The study of conventional lateral memristors has been in a slow stage of development due to the dependence of the atomic defect migration or local phase transition in two-dimensional (2D) materials. Here, a novel transversal memristor based on the flexoelectric effect induced by a bent atomic laminated structure is proposed. The memristor exhibits desirable resistive switching performance, including a current ON/OFF ratio of approximately 10⁵, forming-free operation, high yield of 97 %, and low cycle-to-cycle variation of only 7.4 %. The stable analog memristive behavior could be attributed to the dynamic modulation of the barrier between suspended and flat regions by external voltage biases. Further, the volatile resistance switching characteristics have successfully emulated key features of multi-field perceptual artificial nociceptors, including threshold, “no adaptation” etc. This work demonstrates a new resistive switching phenomenon in transversal 2D material devices, and opens a new way for the development of intelligent adaptive artificial sensory systems.