Characteristics of titanium oxide memristor with coexistence of dopant drift and a tunnel barrier

The recent published experimental data of titanium oxide memristor devices which are tested under the same experimental conditions exhibit the strange instability and complexity of these devices. Such undesired characteristics preclude the understanding of the device conductive processes and the memristor-based practical applications. The possibility of the coexistence of dopant drift and tunnel barrier conduction in a memristor provides preliminary explanations for the undesired characteristics. However, current research lacks detailed discussion about the coexistence case. In this paper, dopant drift and tunnel barrier-based theories are first analyzed for studying the relations between parameters and physical variables which affect characteristics of memristors, and then the influences of each parameter change on the conductive behaviors in the single and coexistence cases of the two mechanisms are simulated and discussed respectively. The simulation results provide further explanations of the complex device conduction. Theoretical methods of eliminating or reducing the coexistence of the two mechanisms are proposed, in order to increase the stability of the device conduction. This work also provides the support for optimizing the fabrications of memristor devices with excellent performance.