arXiv subjects

Suhas Kumar

Publications and source records attributed to Suhas Kumar.

25 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2016

Direct Observation of Localized Radial Oxygen Migration in Functioning Tantalum Oxide Memristors

Oxygen migration in tantalum oxide, a promising next-generation storage material, is studied using in-operando x-ray absorption spectromicroscopy and is used to microphysically describe accelerated evolution of conduction channel and device failure. The resulting ring-like patterns of oxygen concentration are modeled using thermophoretic forces and Fick diffusion, establishing the critical role of temperature-activated oxygen migration that has been under question lately.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2015

Atomic Batteries: Energy from Radioactivity

With alternate, sustainable, natural sources of energy being sought after, there is new interest in energy from radioactivity, including natural and waste radioactive materials. A study of various atomic batteries is presented with perspectives of development and comparisons of performance parameters and cost. We discuss radioisotope thermal generators, indirect conversion batteries, direct conversion batteries, and direct charge batteries. We qualitatively describe their principles of operation and their applications. We project possible market trends through our comparative cost analysis. We also explore a future direction for certain atomic batteries by using nanomaterials to improve their performance.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2015

Sequential Electronic and Structural Transitions in VO2 Observed Using X-ray Absorption Spectromicroscopy

The popular dual electronic (Mott) and structural (Peierls) transitions in VO2 are explored using x-ray absorption spectromicroscopy with high spatial and spectral resolutions. It is found that during both heating and cooling, the electronic transition always precedes the structural Peierls transition. Between the two transitions, there are intermediate states that are spectrally isolated here.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2015

Fundamental Limits to Moore's Law

The theoretical and practical aspects of the fundamental, ultimate, physical limits to scaling, or Moore-s law, is presented.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2015

Characterization of electronic structure of periodically strained graphene

We induced periodic biaxial tensile strain in polycrystalline graphene by wrapping it over a substrate with repeating pillar-like structures with a periodicity of 600 nm. Using Raman spectroscopy, we determined to have introduced biaxial strains in graphene in the range of 0.4% to 0.7%. Its band structure was characterized using photoemission from valance bands, shifts in the secondary electron emission, and x-ray absorption from the carbon 1s levels to the unoccupied graphene conduction bands. It was observed that relative to unstrained graphene, strained graphene had a higher work function and higher density of states in the valence and conduction bands. We measured the conductivity of the strained and unstrained graphene in response to a gate voltage and correlated the changes in their behavior to the changes in the electronic structure. From these sets of data, we propose a simple band diagram representing graphene with periodic biaxial strain.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2015

Local Temperature Redistribution and Structural Transition During Joule-Heating-Driven Conductance Switching in VO2

Joule-heating induced conductance-switching is studied in VO2, a Mott insulator. Complementary in-situ techniques including optical characterization, blackbody microscopy, scanning transmission x-ray microscopy (STXM) and numerical simulations are used. Abrupt redistribution in local temperature is shown to occur upon conductance-switching along with a structural phase transition, at the same current.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2015

In-operando synchronous time-multiplexed O K-edge x-ray absorption spectromicroscopy of functioning tantalum oxide memristors

Memristors are receiving keen interest because of their potential varied applications and promising large-scale information storage capabilities. Tantalum oxide is a memristive material that has shown promise for high-performance nonvolatile computer memory. The microphysics has been elusive because of the small scale and subtle physical changes that accompany conductance switching. In this study, we probed the atomic composition, local chemistry and electronic structure of functioning tantalum oxide memristors through spatially mapped O K-edge x-ray absorption. We developed a time-multiplexed spectromicroscopy technique to enhance the weak and possibly localized oxide modifications with spatial and spectral resolutions of <30 nm and 70 meV, respectively. During the initial stages of conductance switching of a micrometer sized crosspoint device, the spectral changes were uniform within the spatial resolution of our technique. When the device was further driven with millions of high voltage-pulse cycles, we observed lateral motion and separation of ~100 nm-scale agglomerates of both oxygen interstitials and vacancies. We also demonstrate a unique capability of this technique by identifying the relaxation behavior in the material during electrical stimuli by identifying electric field driven changes with varying pulse widths. In addition, we show that changes to the material can be localized to a spatial region by modifying its topography or uniformity, as against spatially uniform changes observed here during memristive switching. The goal of this report is to introduce the capability of time-multiplexed x-ray spectromicroscopy in studying weak-signal transitions in inhomogeneous media through the example of the operation and temporal evolution of a memristor.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗