Atomic bridge memristor based on silver and two-dimensional GeSe

Memristors store information through a history dependent resistance, which could be used in future computing technologies as a resistive random access memory or to mimic synaptic behaviors with all electronic components. Realizing memristive behavior in the emerging two-dimensional (2D) materials will add new applications to this group of interesting materials. In this study, we successfully fabricate memristors based on a layered 2D material GeSe. Few-layer GeSe flakes are used as the ionic and electronic conductor, and silver is deposited as the active electrode. Reproducible resistance switching is realized in this type of device with the ratio of high resistance to low resistance reaching 10(4). Thanks to the planar device structure, the conductive path responsible for the resistance state switching is directly imaged with a conductive atomic force microscope. An in situ observation shows that the conductive path is reconfigurable by the polarity of the voltage between the silver and GeSe electrodes. These results demonstrate a facile method for fabricating memristors with 2D materials and provide insights into the resistance switching mechanism.