title: From stochastic single atomic switch to nanoscale resistive memory device.
abstract: We study the switching characteristics of nanoscale junctions created between a tungsten tip and a silver film covered by a thin ionic conductor layer. Atomic-sized junctions show spectacular current induced switching characteristics, but both the magnitude of the switching voltage and the direction of the switching vary randomly for different junctions. In contrast, somewhat larger junctions with diameters of a few nanometres display a well defined, reproducible switching behavior attributed to the formation and destruction of nanoscale channels in the ionic conductor surface layer. Our results define a lower size limit of 3 nm for reliable ionic nano-switches, which is well below the resolution of recent lithographic techniques.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, Budapest University of Technology and Economics and Condensed Matter Research Group of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, 1111 Budapest, Budafoki út 8, Hungary. geresdi.attila@wigner.bme.hu
authors.forename: Attila
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Geresdi
authors.forename: András
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Halbritter
authors.forename: András
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Gyenis
authors.forename: Péter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Makk
authors.forename: György
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Mihály
mesh_terms: D004553:Electric Conductivity; D004867:Equipment Design; D019544:Equipment Failure Analysis; D008839:Microelectrodes; D036103:Nanotechnology / Q000295:instrumentation*; D012815:Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted / Q000295:instrumentation*; D012834:Silver / Q000737:chemistry*; D013269:Stochastic Processes
chemical_list: D012834:Silver