LAUSR

Two-dimensional (2D) materials based memristors have shown several properties that are not shown by traditional ones, such as high transparency, robust mechanical strength and flexibility, superb chemical stability, enhanced thermal heat dissipation, ultra-low power consumption, coexistence of bipolar and threshold resistive switching (RS), and ultra-stable relaxation when used as electronic synapse (among others). However, several electrical performances often needed in memristive applications, such as the generation of multiple stable resistive states for high-density information storage, still have never been demonstrated. Here we present the first 2D materials based memristors that exhibit three stable and well-distinguishable resistive states. By using a multilayer hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) stack sandwiched by multilayer graphene (G) electrodes, we fabricate 5 µm × 5 µm cross-point Au/Ti/G/h-BN/G/Au memristors can switch between each two or three resistive states depending on the current limitation (CL) and reset voltage used. The use of graphene electrodes plus a small cross-point structure are key elements to observe the tristate operation, which has not been observed in larger (100 µm × 100 µm) devices with identical Au/Ti/G/h-BN/G/Au structure, nor in similar small (5 µm × 5 µm) devices without graphene interfacial layers (i.e. Au/Ti/h-BN/Au). Basically, we generate an intermediate state between the high resistive state (HRS) and the low resistive state (LRS), named soft-LRS (S-LRS), which may be related to the formation of a narrower conductive nanofilament (CNF) across the h-BN, due to the ability of graphene to limit metal penetration (at low current limitations). All the 2D materials have been fabricated using scalable chemical vapor deposition (CVD) approach, which is an immediate advantage compared to other works using mechanical exfoliated 2D materials.