2021 Prize Winner - Tom Raeber

Tom’s research has focussed on the fabrication and characterisation of thin-film amorphous carbon devices for resistive switching applications. Current computing technology has a significant performance bottleneck due to the separation of its memory and processing units. Resistive switching devices and the synonymous ‘memristor’ combine these two elements into a single unit, therefore overcoming the limitation. Large interconnectivity between these discrete units allows for exponential improvements in processing power while reducing the hardware footprint. Potential applications for this technology range from improved autonomous systems to providing a hardware platform for true AI. Tom investigated the material and electronic properties of three amorphous carbon systems (elemental, oxygenated, and hydrogenated) produced by simple physical vapour deposition techniques. This work required the optimisation of device fabrication and holistic characterisation with the aim to discern the mechanism(s) for device operation. His work yielded insight into the properties and mechanisms of these systems and demonstrated carbon’s suitability for this application.

During his candidature, he authored two first author publications and was a contributing author on seven others:

1. T.J. Raeber, Z.C. Zhao, B.J. Murdoch, D.R. McKenzie, D.G. McCulloch, J.G. Partridge, Resistive switching and transport characteristics of an all-carbon memristor, Carbon N. Y. 136 (2018) 280–285. 
2. T.J. Raeber, A.J. Barlow, Z.C. Zhao, D.R. McKenzie, J.G. Partridge, D.G. McCulloch, B.J. Murdoch, Sensory gating in bilayer amorphous carbon memristors, Nanoscale. 10 (2018) 20272–20278. 
3. B.J. Murdoch, T.J. Raeber, A.J. Barlow, D.G. McCulloch, J.G. Partridge, Non-volatile and volatile memory behaviour in oxygenated amorphous carbon electrochemical metallisation devices, Appl. Phys. Lett. 112 (2018) 242903. 
4. H.N. Tran, T.J. Raeber, Z.C. Zhao, D.R. McKenzie, A.S. Holland, D.G. McCulloch, B.J. Murdoch, J.G. Partridge, Observation and characterization of memristive silver filaments in amorphous zinc-tin-oxide, MRS Commun. 8 (2018) 1104–1110. 
5. H.V. Pham, P.Y. Le, H.N. Tran, T.J. Raeber, M.S.N. Alnassar, A.S. Holland, J.G. Partridge, Temperature dependent electrical characteristics of rectifying graphitic contacts to p-type silicon, Semicond. Sci. Technol. 34 (2019) 015003.
6. C.T. Tran, T.J. Raeber, B.J. Murdoch, A.J. Barlow, J.G. Partridge, D.G. McCulloch, D.R. McKenzie, Conducting carbon films with covalent binding sites for biomolecule attachment, J. Appl. Phys. 125 (2019) 075302. 
7. B.J. Murdoch, T.J. Raeber, Z.C. Zhao, D.R. McKenzie, D.G. McCulloch, J.G. Partridge, Temperature sensitivity and short-term memory in electroforming-free low power carbon memristors, Appl. Phys. Lett. 114 (2019).
8. B.J. Murdoch, T.J. Raeber, Z.C. Zhao, A.J. Barlow, D.R. McKenzie, D.G. McCulloch, J.G. Partridge, Light-gated amorphous carbon memristors with indium-free transparent electrodes, Carbon N. Y. 152 (2019). 
9. Z.C. Zhao, T.J. Raeber, B.J. Murdoch, J.G. Partridge, D.G. McCulloch, D.R. McKenzie, Unifying the optical and electrical properties of amorphous carbon: application to hopping photoconductivity and memristance, J. Appl. Phys. 128