  We report resistive switching in voltage biased point contacts (PCs) based on
series of van der Waals transition metals tellurides (TMTs) such as MeTe2
(Me=Mo, W) and TaMeTe4 (Me= Ru, Rh, Ir). The switching occurs between a low
resistive "metallic-type" state, which is the ground state, and a high
resistive "semiconducting-type" state by applying certain bias voltage (<1V),
while reverse switching takes place by applying voltage of opposite polarity.
The origin of the effect can be formation of domain in PC core by applying a
bias voltage, when a strong electric field (about 10kV/cm) modifies the crystal
structure and controls its polarization. In addition to the discovery of the
switching effect in PCs, we also suggest a simple method of material testing
before functionalizing them, which offers a great advantage in finding suitable
novel substances. The new functionality of studied TMTs arising from switchable
domains in submicron hetero-structures that are promising, e.g., for
non-volatile resistive random access memory (RRAM) engineering.
