Direct Evidence of Lithium Ion Migration in Resistive Switching of Lithium Cobalt Oxide Nanobatteries

van Son Nguyen (1) , van Huy Mai (2) , Pascale Auban-Senzier (3) , Claude R. Pasquier (3) , Kang Wang (3) , Marcelo J. Rozenberg (3) , Nathalie Brun (3) , Katia March (3) , François Jomard (4) , John Giapintzakis (5) , Cristian Mihailescu (6) , Evripides Kyriakides (7) , Pavan Nukala (8) , Thomas Maroutian (9) , Guillaume Agnus (9) , Philippe Lecoeur (9) , Silvia Matzen (9) , Pascal Aubert (9) , Sylvain Franger (10) , Raphaël Salot (11) , Pierre-Antoine Albouy (3) , David Alamarguy (1) , Brahim Dkhil (8) , Pascal Chrétien (1) , Olivier Schneegans (1)

1 GeePs - Laboratoire Génie électrique et électronique de Paris
2 LQDTU - Le Quy Don Technical University
3 LPS - Laboratoire de Physique des Solides
4 GEMAC - Groupe d'Etude de la Matière Condensée
5 UCY - University of Cyprus [Nicosia]
6 National Institute for Lasers, Plasma, and Radiation Physics - INFLPR (ROMANIA)
7 University of Cyprus = Université de Chypre
8 SPMS - Laboratoire Structures, Propriétés et Modélisation des solides
9 C2N - Centre de Nanosciences et de Nanotechnologies [Orsay]
10 ICMMO - Institut de Chimie Moléculaire et des Matériaux d'Orsay
11 DACLE-LETI - Département d'Architectures, Conception et Logiciels Embarqués-LETI

Lithium cobalt oxide nanobatteries offer exciting prospects in the field of nonvolatile memories and neuromorphic circuits. However, the precise underlying resistive switching (RS) mechanism remains a matter of debate in two‐terminal cells. Herein, intriguing results, obtained by secondary ion mass spectroscopy (SIMS) 3D imaging, clearly demonstrate that the RS mechanism corresponds to lithium migration toward the outside of the Li$_x$CoO$_2$ layer. These observations are very well correlated with the observed insulator‐to‐metal transition of the oxide. Besides, smaller device area experimentally yields much faster switching kinetics, which is qualitatively well accounted for by a simple numerical simulation. Write/erase endurance is also highly improved with downscaling – much further than the present cycling life of usual lithium‐ion batteries. Hence very attractive possibilities can be envisaged for this class of materials in nanoelectronics.

Keywords: nonvolatile memories; lithium‐ion batteries; oxides; resistive switching; thin film

Domains: Materials; Micro and nanotechnologies/Microelectronics; Materials Science [cond-mat.mtrl-sci]

van Son Nguyen, van Huy Mai, Pascale Auban-Senzier, Claude R. Pasquier, Kang Wang, et al.. Direct Evidence of Lithium Ion Migration in Resistive Switching of Lithium Cobalt Oxide Nanobatteries. Small, 2018, 14 (24), pp.1801038. ⟨10.1002/smll.201801038⟩. ⟨hal-01799107⟩