Memristive switching mechanism of vertically aligned carbon nanotubes

This paper proposes a memristive switching mechanism of an individual vertically aligned carbon nanotube related to the formation and subsequent redistribution of non-uniform elastic strain and piezoelectric charge in the nanotube under the influence of an external electric field. We experimentally confirmed the occurrence of an internal electric field in the carbon nanotube under non-uniform elastic strain and its dependence on the applied voltage. Our findings also revealed the dependence of resistive switching parameters of strained nanotubes on their mechanical and geometric parameters, that result in an opportunity to create memristive structures based on vertically aligned carbon nanotubes with reproducible parameters. The results of the study showed that vertically aligned carbon nanotubes can be used to create memristive structures with planar dimensions, defined by the diameter of nanotubes, that would outperform metal-oxide memristors in terms of performance, scalability and efficiency.

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