Light in Memristive Atomic Scale Junction - Memristors go Photonics

Abstract

Memristive devices are an emerging new type of devices operating at the scale of a few or even single atoms. They largely exploited for emulating the electrical function of synapses and are thus currently investigated for performing in-memory and neuromorphic computing. In this contribution, we report the obser-vation of a novel feature in these devices. We show that memristors can also emit photons during their activity. We identified three mechanisms producing photons with vastly different properties. The crossover between emission regimes depends on the history of the memristor and its operating conductance. Our results suggests that this new generation of memristor pave the way for multidimensional neural networks using both electrons and photons as information carrier.