Fourier Response of a Memristor: Generation of High Harmonics with Increasing Weights

Abstract

We investigate the Fourier transform of the current through a memristor when the applied-voltage frequency is smaller than the characteristic memristor frequency, and the memristor shows hysteresis in the current-voltage plane. We find that when the hysteresis curve is "smooth", the current Fourier transform has weights at odd and even harmonics that decay rapidly and monotonically with the order of the harmonic; when the hysteresis curve is "sharp", the Fourier transform of the current is significantly broader, with non-monotonic weights at high harmonics. We present a simple model which shows that this qualitative change in the Fourier spectrum is solely driven by the saturation of memristance during a voltage cycle, and not independently by various system parameters such as applied or memristor frequencies, and the non-linear dopant drift.