Liquid‐Metal‐Induced Memristor Behavior in Polymer Insulators

Abstract

Resistive switching devices are enabling neuromorphic functionalities, which are exceptionally appealing in electronic gates and memories as active components. Polymer materials have been proven to be promising for resistive memory devices due to low cost, easy processability, mechanical flexibility, and smooth electronic performance tuning through innovative molecular design. However, conventional rigid metals utilized for such devices are not easy to induce resistive memory behavior. In addition, only some specific materials as active layers have been used to date. Herein, it is demonstrated that liquid metals (LMs) can be destined for memristors with various insulators including poly dimethyl siloxane (PDMS), poly (vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF), and poly methyl methacrylate (PMMA). In contrast to other metals that show memristor behaviors only for specific active materials or device architectures, LMs are found to easily form switchable conductive filaments in all the organic materials. All devices show uniform and bipolar resistive memory behavior with a low switching voltage, high ON/OFF ratio, longer endurance, and retention characteristics, possessing capability for next‐generation wearable and soft brain‐like neuromorphic resistive memory devices.