Investigating the Effects of $\mathrm{V}_{2}\mathrm{C}$ MXene on Improving the Switching Stability and Reducing the Operation Voltages of TiO₂-Based Memristors

Three-atoms-type <tex xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">$\mathrm{V}_{2}\mathrm{C}$</tex> MXene, an emerging class of transition metal carbides, has attracted tremendous attention in the fabrication of advanced memristive devices due to its excellent electrochemical properties. However, the inserted effects and corresponding physical mechanisms of inserting <tex xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">$\mathrm{V}_{2}\mathrm{C}$</tex> on traditional TiO<inf xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</inf>-based memristors have not been clearly explored. In this work, exhaustive electrical characterizations of the <tex xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">$\mathrm{V}_{2}\mathrm{C}$</tex> /TiO<inf xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</inf>-based devices exhibit enhanced performance (e.g., improved switching stability and lower operating voltages) compared to the TiO<inf xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</inf>-based counterparts. In addition, the advantaged influences of the inserted <tex xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">$\mathrm{V}_{2}\mathrm{C}$</tex> have also been studied by means of first-principles calculations, confirming that <tex xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">$\mathrm{V}_{2}\mathrm{C}$</tex> MXene enables controllable internal ionic process and facilitated formation mechanism of the Ag conductive filaments. This work demonstrates a way to combine experimental and theoretical investigations to reveal the positive effects of introducing <tex xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">$\mathrm{V}_{2}\mathrm{C}$</tex> MXene on memristor, which is beneficial for fabricating performance-enhanced memristors.