Voltage-driven transition from steady-state fluctuations to phase-transition noise in nanoscale VO$_2$ devices

Abstract

We investigate the electrically driven metal-to-insulator transition (MIT) in nanoscale vanadium dioxide (VO$_2$) Mott memristor through noise spectroscopy and two-dimensional resistor network simulations. Our experiments focus on both the insulating phase as the applied voltage approaches the threshold voltage (set transition) and the metallic phase as the voltage is reduced toward the reset voltage (reset transition). In both regimes, we observe an order of magnitude increase in relative current noise near the transition points. To analyze the origin of this noise enhancement, we use simulations that capture the stochastic dynamics of the phase transition. The simulations indicate that the increased noise stems from amplified phase fluctuations near the percolation threshold, where competing metallic and insulating domains lead to dynamic reconfiguration of the conduction paths. In addition, we show that the precursor current fluctuations observed near the switching threshold are consistent with the threshold voltage variability measured in repeated switching cycles, indicating that the noise sets a lower bound on the achievable variance. These findings offer key insights into the non-equilibrium processes governing phase transitions in nanoscale VO$_2$ devices under electrical stimuli.