Strong radial electric field scaling near nanoscale conductive filaments and the ReRAM resistive switching mechanism
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arXiv
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| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Preprint |
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2026
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| _version_ | 1866914306679898112 |
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| author | Jacobs-Gedrim, Robin Wahby, William Awe, Thomas Xiao, Patrick Witten, Melvin Martinez-Marez, Jacob Seetala, Kiran Hughart, David Talin, Alec Bennett, Christopher Marinella, Matthew Bersuker, Gennadi Agarwal, Sapan |
| author_facet | Jacobs-Gedrim, Robin Wahby, William Awe, Thomas Xiao, Patrick Witten, Melvin Martinez-Marez, Jacob Seetala, Kiran Hughart, David Talin, Alec Bennett, Christopher Marinella, Matthew Bersuker, Gennadi Agarwal, Sapan |
| contents | The physics underlying reset in bipolar resistive memory has been the subject of decades of controversy and has been identified as the primary barrier to resistive memory technology development. This manuscript introduces a nanoscale effect in current carrying conductors, whereby surface charge induced radial electric fields are found to be inversely proportional to the radius of the conductive path. This nanoscale effect is then applied to explain the negative resistance switching (reset) mechanism in filamentary metal oxide resistive switching memory devices (memristors). Previous explanations for the negative resistive switching mechanism state that diffusion constitutes the radial driving mechanism for oxygen ions, and drift under electric fields is restricted to the direction parallel to current flow. This explanation conflicts with retention and microscopy data collected in a subset of devices presented in literature. We demonstrate that the electric field's dependency on the on the radius of a nanoscale conductive path can result in radial fields on the order of 10^5 to 10^6 V/cm at only -1 V bias, sufficient to govern the negative resistance switching mechanism in filamentary metal oxides. By accounting for this nanoscale size effect, long standing anomalous experimental data about the negative (reset) resistance switching mechanism in bipolar filamentary resistive memory devices is finally reconciled. Wide understanding of surface charges and associated electric fields in nanoscale conductive paths could prove important for further scaling of integrated circuits and aid in elucidating many nanoscale phenomena. |
| format | Preprint |
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arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2602_05067 |
| institution | arXiv |
| publishDate | 2026 |
| record_format | arxiv |
| spellingShingle | Strong radial electric field scaling near nanoscale conductive filaments and the ReRAM resistive switching mechanism Jacobs-Gedrim, Robin Wahby, William Awe, Thomas Xiao, Patrick Witten, Melvin Martinez-Marez, Jacob Seetala, Kiran Hughart, David Talin, Alec Bennett, Christopher Marinella, Matthew Bersuker, Gennadi Agarwal, Sapan Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics The physics underlying reset in bipolar resistive memory has been the subject of decades of controversy and has been identified as the primary barrier to resistive memory technology development. This manuscript introduces a nanoscale effect in current carrying conductors, whereby surface charge induced radial electric fields are found to be inversely proportional to the radius of the conductive path. This nanoscale effect is then applied to explain the negative resistance switching (reset) mechanism in filamentary metal oxide resistive switching memory devices (memristors). Previous explanations for the negative resistive switching mechanism state that diffusion constitutes the radial driving mechanism for oxygen ions, and drift under electric fields is restricted to the direction parallel to current flow. This explanation conflicts with retention and microscopy data collected in a subset of devices presented in literature. We demonstrate that the electric field's dependency on the on the radius of a nanoscale conductive path can result in radial fields on the order of 10^5 to 10^6 V/cm at only -1 V bias, sufficient to govern the negative resistance switching mechanism in filamentary metal oxides. By accounting for this nanoscale size effect, long standing anomalous experimental data about the negative (reset) resistance switching mechanism in bipolar filamentary resistive memory devices is finally reconciled. Wide understanding of surface charges and associated electric fields in nanoscale conductive paths could prove important for further scaling of integrated circuits and aid in elucidating many nanoscale phenomena. |
| title | Strong radial electric field scaling near nanoscale conductive filaments and the ReRAM resistive switching mechanism |
| topic | Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics |
| url | https://arxiv.org/abs/2602.05067 |