Nonlinear effects in memristors with mobile vacancies

Because local concentration of vacancies in any material is bounded, their motion must be accompanied by nonlinear effects. Here, we look for such effects in a simple model for electric field-driven vacancy motion in a memristor, solving the corresponding nonlinear Burgers’ equation with impermeable nonlinear boundary conditions exactly. We find non-monotonous relaxation of the resistance while switching between the stable (‘on’ and ‘off’) states, and qualitatively different dependencies of switching time (under applied current) and relaxation time (under no current) on the memristor length. Our solution can serve as a useful benchmark for simulations of more complex memristor models.