Energy-efficient and stable resistive switching in vanadium dioxide nanocrystals

We investigate an electrically-driven semiconductor- metal phase transition in formed polycrystalline films, nanocrystal arrays, and a single nanocrystal of vanadium dioxide. An increase by about an order of magnitude in the current jump during the phase transition was observed in the nanocrystal arrays compared to solid films, which is in agreement with the parallel resistance model. We found that the switching threshold power decreases by 4–5 orders of magnitude when compared a solid film to single nanocrystals and reaches a value of about 40 nW. This effect occurs due to lower heat dissipation in single nanocrystals. Vanadium dioxide nanocrystals have demonstrated high stability when switched at least 10$^{10}$ times. The results obtained are promising for the formation of energy-efficient, stable and durable switching elements based on vanadium dioxide single nanocrystals.