2025/11/19 by Sun, Y., Banguero, M. Alzate, Salev, P. +4
Engineering · Materials Science · #Advanced Memory and Neural Computing #FOS: Physical sciences #Ferroelectric and Negative Capacitance Devices #Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci) #Strongly Correlated Electrons (cond-mat.str-el) #Transition Metal Oxide Nanomaterials
paper · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2511.15147
openalex publication_date 2025/11/19 · openalex created_date 2025/11/23 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
The ramp-reversal memory (RRM) effect in metal-insulator transition metal oxides (TMOs), a non-volatile resistance change induced by repeated temperature cycling, has attracted considerable interest in neuromorphic computing and non-volatile memory devices. Our previously introduced defect motion model successfully explained RRM in vanadium dioxide (VO2), capturing observed critical temperature shifts and memory accumulation throughout the sample. However, this approach lacked interactions between metallic and insulating domains, whereas the RRM only appears when TMOs are brought into the metal-insulator coexistence regime. Here, we extend our model by combining the Random Field Ising Model with defect diffusion-segregation, thereby enabling accurate hysteresis modeling while predicting the relationship between RRM and domain interactions. Our simulations demonstrate that maximum RRM occurs when the turnaround temperature approaches the warming branch inflection point, consistent with experimental observations on VO2. Most significantly, we find that increasing nearest-neighbor interactions enhances the maximum memory effect, thus providing a clear mechanism for optimizing RRM performance. Since our model employs minimal assumptions, we predict that RRM should be a widespread phenomenon in materials exhibiting patterned phase coexistence of electronic domains. This work not only advances fundamental understanding of memory behavior in TMOs but also establishes a much-needed theoretical framework for optimizing device applications.