Memristive Dendritic Device with a Chemical Vapor-Deposited Monolayer MoS₂ Film

Abstract

The discovery of graphene in the early 2000s led to the rapid development of an emerging class of material system, now widely known as two-dimensional (2D) materials. The atomic-scale thickness of 2D materials leads to rich transport physics beneficial for many electronic/optoelectronic devices. 2D transition-metal dichalcogenides (2D-TMDCs) have been widely investigated in logic applications over the past decade. However, out-of-plane transport in ultrathin 2D-TMDCs and the resulting applications in memristive devices remain relatively less explored. Challenges remain in large-area growth, as well as in the fundamental understanding of resistance switching in 2D-TMDC films. In this work, we report a systematic investigation of resistive switching in monolayer (1L) MoS2 films. We demonstrate large-area growth of chemical vapor-deposited (CVD) 1L-MoS2 films. Two-terminal cross-point devices are fabricated with 1L MoS2 as the active material. Different switching mechanisms emerge in the fabricated Au/Ti/1L-MoS2/Au/Cr devices depending on the operating conditions. We observe a partially volatile mode of operation that can be used to mimic the dynamics of a dendritic junction in a biological neuron. While dendritic junctions are generally ignored in machine learning, they play a crucial role in biological networks through signal filtering and integration. This, in turn, leads to enhanced energy efficiency. By demonstrating MoS2-based dendritic memristive devices, we envisage the development of more efficient and bioinspired neural networks.