Authors: Aurélien Lagarrigue, Carolina de Dios, Santiago J Carreira, Vincent Humbert, Salvatore Mesoraca, Javier Briatico, Juan Trastoy and Javier E Villegas
Supercond. Sci. Technol. 37 (2024) 045007
Abstract: Cuprate superconductors are highly sensitive to disorder and oxygen stoichiometry; even minute variations of those parameters drastically change their electronic properties. In this work, we
exploit this characteristic to engineer a memristive device based on the high-TC superconductor
YBa2Cu3O7−x (YBCO), in which local changes of the oxygen content and induced disorder are
harnessed to produce memory effects. These effects are electrically triggered in a three-terminal
device whose structure is reminiscent of a transistor, consisting of a YBCO channel and an Al
gate. The Al/YBCO interface, which controls the gate conductance, displays a large, bipolar,
reversible switching across a continuum of non-volatile conductance states spanning over two
decades. This phenomenon is controlled by the gate voltage magnitude and is caused by the
oxygen exchange between YBCO and Al. Concomitantly, the channel shows a gradual,
irreversible superconductor-to-insulator transition that retains a memory of the power dissipated
in the device and can be explained by induced bulk disorder. The observed effects, and the
understanding of the interplay between the underlying mechanisms, constitute interesting
ingredients for the design and realization of novel memristors and switches for superconducting
electronics.
