Episode 16: Mem-emitters achieve memory functionalities

In this podcast episode, MRS Bulletin’s Sophia Chen interviews Victor Lopez-Richard from Federal University of São Carlos in Brazil about his memory device called a mem-emitter. Unlike a memresistor (short for “memory resistor”), which made of materials whose electrical resistance can be tuned, the mem-emitter is used to tune optical properties. Experimentally, Lopez-Richard’s research group made the device out of molybdenum diselenide, which is a transition metal dichalcogenide, that was then layered onto a dielectric known as a clinochlore. The researchers found that they were able to tune the intensity of the light emitted according to theoretical predictions. This work was published in a recent issue of Nano Letters.