  We report on the room-temperature switching of 1T-TaS2 thin-film
charge-density-wave devices, using nanosecond-duration electrical pulsing to
construct their time-resolved current-voltage characteristics. The switching
action is based upon the nearly-commensurate to incommensurate
charge-density-wave phase transition in this material, which has a
characteristic temperature of 350 K at thermal equilibrium. For sufficiently
short pulses, with rise times in the nanosecond range, self-heating of the
devices is suppressed, and their current-voltage characteristics are weakly
non-linear and free of hysteresis. This changes as the pulse duration is
increased to 200 ns, where the current develops pronounced hysteresis that
evolves non-monotonically with the pulse duration. By combining the results of
our experiments with a numerical analysis of transient heat diffusion in these
devices, we clearly reveal the thermal origins of their switching. In spite of
this thermal character, our modeling suggests that suitable reduction of the
size of these devices should allow their operation at GHz frequencies.
