Neutron total ionizing dose effects on threshold switching dynamics in niobium oxide Mott memristors

NbOx Mott memristors have demonstrated high potential in deep space detection as well as nuclear industries. However, the devices' performance under irradiation exposure remains unexplored. In this work, we investigate the impact of atmospheric neutron irradiation on the characteristics of NbOx memristors and reveal the underlying mechanisms. Our findings indicate that neutron irradiation causes significant impacts on the electrical characteristics of the device, including higher oscillation frequencies (from ∼3 kHz to ∼5 MHz), lower threshold voltage (from 2 V to 1–1.5 V), and decreased peak to peak values (> 200 mV). This is likely due to the increased diameter size of the conductive filament caused by the shift of the concentration of oxygen vacancies within the NbOx thin film, supported by corresponding electron energy loss spectroscopy results and corroborated by simulation results. This study provides valuable insights into the effects of neutron irradiation effects on NbOx Mott memristor and its applications in artificial spiking neurons.