Utilizing electronic devices to emulate biological synapses for the construction of artificial neural networks has provided a feasible research approach for the future development of artificial intelligence systems. Until now, different kinds of electronic devices have been proposed in the realization of biological synapse functions. However, the device stability and the power consumption are major challenges for future industrialization applications. Herein, an electronic synapse of MXene/SiO₂ structure-based resistive random-access memory (RRAM) devices has been designed and fabricated by taking advantage of the desirable properties of SiO₂ and 2D MXene material. The proposed RRAM devices, Ag/MXene/SiO₂/Pt, exhibit the resistance switching characteristics where both the volatile and nonvolatile behaviors coexist in a single device. These intriguing features of the Ag/MXene/SiO₂/Pt devices make them more applicable for emulating biological synaptic plasticity. Additionally, the conductive mechanisms of the Ag/MXene/SiO₂/Pt RRAM devices have been discussed on the basis of our experimental results.

Silicon oxide-based memristors have been extensively studied due to their compatibility with the dominant silicon complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor (CMOS) fabrication technology. However, the variability of resistance switching (RS) parameters is one of the major challenges for commercialization applications. Owing to the filamentary nature of most RS devices, the variability of RS parameters can be reduced by doping in the RS region, where conductive filaments (CFs) can grow along the locations of impurities. In this work, we have successfully obtained RS characteristics in Pt dispersed silicon oxide-based memristors. The RS variabilities and mechanisms have been analyzed by screening the statistical data into different resistance ranges, and the distributions are shown to be compatible with a Weibull distribution. Additionally, a quantum points contact (QPC) model has been validated to account for the conductive mechanism and further sheds light on the evolution of the CFs during RS processes.