A nanofluidic memristor based on ion concentration polarization

Abstract

This paper reports the very first nanofluidic memristor based on the principle of ion concentration polarization (ICP). ICP is induced through highly-ordered cylindrical nanochannels. These so-called nanocapillaries are formed within a glass layer on silicon through a thermal reflow process and low-resolution lithography. The current-voltage plots exhibit characteristic pinched-hysteresis loops and the concurrent tracking of fluorescent charged particles correlates the memristive behaviour to the ICP. The ICP-based nanofluidic memristor could have implications in emerging areas such as integrated fluid-based logic circuits.