A novel design of a-Si based memristor with optical readout functionality utilizing silicon prism

The Switching mechanism of a-Si memristor is based on the electrochemical metallization (ECM) effect. After application of a constant bias, the metal ions oxidized on the surface of the electrode migrates to the amorphous silicon layer, which not only lead to the resistive switching behavior, but also the change of optical parameters of switching material. Here, a novel film memristor with optical readout functionality has been set up by combining a silicon prism with Ag/a-Si/Al structure. The attenuation of the reflected light from the device dependence on surface plasmon resonance (SPR) effect on interface of silver layer which is sensitive to the refractive index of the a-Si layer. The change of the reflectance spectrum of the memristor under different bias voltages was simulate by means of finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) method, and the influence of the thickness of the amorphous silicon film and the silver film on the intensity of the reflected light was analyzed.