Revealing the physics of switching mechanism in 2D materials based memristor devices (2DMEM)

One of the most promising non-volatile memory devices and a building block of brain-inspired neuromorphic computing architectures is memristors. The advent of two-dimensional materials (2DMs) has opened a plethora of opportunities in realizing ultra-scaled device dimensions for future logic and memory applications. Despite different hypotheses proposed in the literature, mainly based on analytical models, significant debate is still ongoing, demonstrating the need for a systematic and atomic-scale study. 2DMEM aims to reveal the fundamental physics lying behind each step of device functionality, e.g., SET and RESET. 2DMEM builds on the complementarity of my strengths on investigating the electronic properties of 2DMs, and simulation expertise and infrastructure at the Host Institution, Tyndall, where access to a large interdisciplinary suite of experimental data on the fabricated 2DM memristors is uniquely available. 2DMEM’s specific objectives are to exploit the experimental data of 2DM properties, and to incorporate ‘realistic’ material and device features into crossbar structures by employing an advanced simulation platform. My career development will benefit from the supervision of Dr Lida Ansari, with the mentorship of Profs Paul Hurley, Stephen Fahy and Dr Farzan Gity, who are established research leaders at Tyndall and at Ireland’s materials research center (AMBER). Through this Fellowship, I will develop my scientific, transferable, and management and leadership skills. These skills are essential for achieving my primary career objective of developing into an independent research leader, and will increase my employability in the academic sector. This MSCA Fellowship also creates a unique starting point for me to directly interact with INTEL, who have expressed great interest in this project, through their R-in-R at Tyndall. This will open up additional possibility of leading impactful research projects and fostering industry-academia collaborations.