Effects of Ar⁺ irradiation on the performance of memristor based on single-crystalline LiNbO₃ thin film

Memristor has become the most promising building block for neuromorphic computing. The memristors based on single-crystalline oxide film exhibit some advantages, such as the uniformity of device property. But currently the high energy consumption of memristor still hinders its future application. In this work, we used Ar⁺ irradiation to modulate the performance of memristor based on single-crystalline LiNbO₃ (LN) thin film. During the Ar⁺ irradiation, the reduction of thin film thickness and the modulation of oxygen vacancies were observed simultaneously. The electroforming voltage and operation voltage of the memristors were reduced effectively, which makes the memristor become more energy-efficient. After Ar⁺ irradiation, the advantage in uniformity of device properties still maintained. The memristors based on Ar⁺ irradiated LN thin film also showed synaptic plasticity and self-rectifying property. The etching effect and preferential sputtering effect of Ar⁺ irradiation were observed and investigated, respectively. The synergy between the two effects was also discussed. This work provides the method to overcome the obstacle of application of memristor based on single-crystalline oxide thin film to neuromorphic computing, which makes the advantages of memristor based on single-crystalline oxide thin film, such as the uniformity of device property, fully used of.