Mott Memory and Neuromorphic Devices

Orbital occupancy control in correlated oxides allows the realization of new electronic phases and collective state switching under external stimuli. The resultant structural and electronic phase transitions provide an elegant way to encode, store, and process information. In this review, we examine the utilization of Mott metal-to-insulator transitions, for memory and neuromorphic devices. We emphasize the overarching electron-phonon coupling and electron-electron interaction-driven transition mechanisms and kinetics, which renders a general description of Mott memories from aspects such as nonvolatility, sensing scheme, read/write speed, and switching energy. Various memory and neuromorphic device architectures incorporating phase transition elements are reviewed, focusing on their operational principles. The role of Peierls distortions and crystal symmetry changes during phase change is discussed. Prospects for such orbitronic devices as hardware components for information technologies are summarized.