Moisture effects on diffusive memristors

This is the authors' abstract. We don't add key points for this paper.

Biological nervous systems encode information through transient, event-driven spikes, motivating neuromorphic hardware that can reproduce such dynamics efficiently. Diffusive memristors are strong candidates because their volatile, threshold-driven responses generate spike-like signals and support temporal processing. However, their switching relies on ionic motion and transient metal clusters that are highly sensitive to interfacial chemistry, leaving the influence of environmental factors unresolved. Here, the chemical role of moisture in enabling volatile threshold switching is systematically established in symmetric Pt/Ag/SiO 2 /Ag/Pt diffusive memristors using a rigorously controlled fabrication and measurement framework. Systematic comparisons show that interfacial water facilitates Ag oxidation and hydrated transport pathways, whereas its depletion suppresses switching or increases variability. These findings demonstrate that moisture is not a minor perturbation but a fundamental chemical requirement for stable operation in such device systems. Controlling interfacial hydration emerges as a key design principle for achieving reliable and commercially scalable diffusive memristors for neuromorphic hardware.