As Moore's Law approaches the physical limit, the traditional von Neumann architecture is facing challenges, among them, one of the most promising device candidates is memristor. In recent decades, memristors have developed rapidly due to their simple sandwich structure, good compatibility and availability with existing CMOS processes. Recently reported memristors show attractive features, such as high ON/OFF ratio, low power consumption, fast switching speed and high durability, which can respond to the needs of emerging applications. These characteristics of the memristor are produced by applying an external bias voltage to change the resistance state. By exploiting complex material types and a variety of resistive mechanisms, the research on memristors and their potential applications has become the frontier and hotspot in physics, electronics, materials, nano and other fields, and has shown the characteristics of interdisciplinary integration. In the field of basic research and practical application of memristors, their complex material types and various resistance mechanisms play a crucial role in device performance and application prospects. The material types and resistance variation mechanism of memristors have laid a solid foundation for predicting and improving device performance and expanding application prospects. Whether it is a non-volatile memristor or a volatile memristor, the material type and resistance variation mechanism are extremely important in influencing the application prospects of information storage, neural networks and logic operations. In particular, to address power and energy efficiency problems in neuromorphic computing, memristors are strong candidates. These endow memristors with the potential to trigger a circuit revolution, which may once again extend the life of Moore's Law, open up new directions for research in the field of information storage and information processing, and its industrialized application may also bring about a new round of technological revolution.
The scope of this focus issue in Frontiers of Physics would cover the aspects on the materials, mechanisms and applications of memristors from experimental synthesis, characterizations, theoretical calculations, etc. Articles reporting on the latest progress in the controllable growth of new materials, switching mechanism, application prospect of memristors and the exploitation of them towards innovative and practical devices are expected. Research works addressing approaches to switching mechanism and application prospect of memristors from both experimental and theoretical points of view are also welcome.
We are looking for high profile scientists from China and overseas to contribute Review, Topical Review, View & Perspective, or Research Article in the foresaid areas. Please feel free to choose a striking topic that best fits the issue. Co-authorship is welcome. There is no strict length limit for each article, and for each review at least 15 pages length is highly expected.
The sample article (TEX template) can be downloaded via http://journal.hep.com.cn/fop/EN/column/column15258.shtml and the new manuscript can be submitted online through http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/fop. All PDFs of the special issue will be open accessed, and a copy of the volume will be mailed to all participants.
Sincerely,
Xiaobing Yan
College of Electron and Information Engineering, Hebei University
E-mail: xiaobing_yan@126.com
Bin Gao
School of Integrated Circuits, Tsinghua University
E-mail: gaob1@tsinghua.edu.cn
Qi Liu
School of Microelectronics, Fudan University
E-mail: qi_liu@fudan.edu.cn