Successful PhD defense of Dr. Zhong Wang

Congratulations to Zhong for completing his thesis on coupled VO₂ oscillators!
 

Title: “Bio-inspired functionalities realized with coupled VO₂ oscillators”

Zhong‘s thesis studies the dynamical electrical properties of vanadium dioxide (VO₂) oscillators and their physical origins, exploring their potential applications as building blocks for hardware-implemented computing architectures. A main observation is the electrical features of VO₂ thin film-based devices. Interestingly, the bursts of spikes with random separation times are observed, which could potentially extend the feasibility of VO₂ devices for computing circuits. Another important focus is the coupling of adjacent VO₂ devices that are separated by only a few micrometers. Via the combination of both electrical and thermal coupling, the oscillations of one device were shown to excite, inhibit or reset a neighboring device. Furthermore, several microscopy techniques were employed for VO₂ devices. With these techniques, metallic filaments together with persistent metallic patches are identified during the electrically driven phase transition. In summary, VO₂ oscillator devices were investigated as computational elements and a microscopic understanding of their behavior under voltage perturbations was established.