Memory emergence in nonlinear systems and nanodevices

Abstract

Memristive systems, or devices with intrinsic memory in general, are center pieces of a challenging and topical scientific field. They serve as grounds of promising technological breakthroughs for advanced computation, data security, and mobile communication. Building and exploiting theoretical models for studying the fundamental ingredients for memory emergence and how they intertwine to get it tuned with intrinsic and extrinsic factors is the scope of the current thesis. Various platforms, ranging from bulk semiconductors oxides towards nanoscopic coupled quantum dots, will be tackled sequentially. The proposal is tightly connected with synergic experimental efforts of our colleagues during the design, growth, characterization, and application of devices. The effect of symmetry constraints (or the lack of them), temperature, illumination, and shapes of voltage drives can be proven to play a decisive role in the nature of the memory emergence and this will be both theoretically and experimentally unveiled in a systematic way in all the systems analyzed. Beyond the device driven studies, the current proposal will also tackle methodological discussions for the impedance spectroscopy characterization of metamaterials and nonlinear systems. The idea is to reduce the seeming complexity of frequency-dependent impedance to a combination of basic microscopic ingredients trying to match a vast universe of experimental evidences. This analytical approach would create a paradigm for impedance spectroscopy studies with impact in physics, electrochemistry, nanotechnology, and engineering. (AU)