title: The missing memristor found.
abstract: Anyone who ever took an electronics laboratory class will be familiar with the fundamental passive circuit elements: the resistor, the capacitor and the inductor. However, in 1971 Leon Chua reasoned from symmetry arguments that there should be a fourth fundamental element, which he called a memristor (short for memory resistor). Although he showed that such an element has many interesting and valuable circuit properties, until now no one has presented either a useful physical model or an example of a memristor. Here we show, using a simple analytical example, that memristance arises naturally in nanoscale systems in which solid-state electronic and ionic transport are coupled under an external bias voltage. These results serve as the foundation for understanding a wide range of hysteretic current-voltage behaviour observed in many nanoscale electronic devices that involve the motion of charged atomic or molecular species, in particular certain titanium dioxide cross-point switches.
authors.affiliation: HP Labs, 1501 Page Mill Road, Palo Alto, California 94304, USA.
authors.forename: Dmitri B
authors.initials: DB
authors.lastname: Strukov
authors.forename: Gregory S
authors.initials: GS
authors.lastname: Snider
authors.forename: Duncan R
authors.initials: DR
authors.lastname: Stewart
authors.forename: R Stanley
authors.initials: RS
authors.lastname: Williams