Electrically Induced Multiple Metal-Insulator Transitions in Oxide Nanodevices

We show that electrical resistive switching can trigger the appearance of multiple metal-insulator transitions (MITs) in VO2 and V2O3 planar nanodevices. We have fabricated planar devices to electrically induce oxygen vacancy drift and filament formation. We show that oxygen migration can create ordered vanadium-oxide phases of varying stoichiometry with an intrinsic MIT, resulting in well-defined hysteresis loops in the R vs T characteristics of the device. We also show that oxygen migration induces oxide phases displaying correlated behaviors. Our results open up the possibility to electrically control the MIT, enabling alternative functionalities in memristive devices and allowing for alternative paradigms in neuromorphic computing or memory applications.