Anni Antola defended her doctoral dissertation on GCMO memristors

Wihuri Physical Laboratory warmly congratulates Dr. Anni Antola on the successful defence of her doctoral dissertation in Physics at the University of Turku.

Antola defended her dissertation, GCMO-Based Memristors for Future Neuromorphic Processors, on 12 June 2026. The dissertation was approved with honours, a distinction awarded to approximately the top 10% of doctoral dissertations in the field.

Antola’s doctoral dissertation focused on Gd₁₋ₓCaₓMnO₃ (GCMO x = 0.8)-based memristors and their potential use in future neuromorphic computing hardware. Memristors are electronic devices whose resistance can be modified and retained, making them promising candidates for energy-efficient memory, artificial synapses, and neuron-like circuit elements.

The dissertation investigated the structural, electrical, and interfacial properties of GCMO-based memristive devices. The work demonstrated that GCMO thin films can be used in simplified crossbar-type device structures for artificial synaptic networks, and that the active Al/GCMO interface strongly influences the resistive switching behaviour. In particular, the thesis examined how interfacial oxide dynamics, device area, substrate-induced crystallinity, and defect structures affect the stability, variability, and functionality of the devices.

A central result of the dissertation is that the same GCMO-based material system can support both non-volatile synaptic-type resistive switching and volatile, leaky-integrate behaviour, depending on the structural properties of the thin film. This highlights the importance of materials engineering in developing neuromorphic devices in which memory and computing functions are integrated at the hardware level.

The opponent of the dissertation was Dr. Babak Bakhit from the Technical University of Denmark. The custos was Professor Petriina Paturi from the University of Turku. The dissertation was supervised by Professor Petriina Paturi, Dr. Hannu Huhtinen, and Dr. Ilari Angervo. The pre-examiners were Dr. Sabina Spiga and Dr. Ulrike Lüders.

The research was carried out at the Wihuri Physical Laboratory, Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Turku, as part of the Memristor & Neuromorphic Computing Group.

Dissertation:
GCMO-Based Memristors for Future Neuromorphic Processors

The photographs from the defence were taken by Antti Salomaa.