title: Sub-100 fJ and sub-nanosecond thermally  driven threshold switching in niobium  oxide crosspoint nanodevices.
abstract: We built and measured the dynamical current versus time behavior of nanoscale niobium oxide crosspoint devices which exhibited threshold switching (current-controlled negative differential resistance). The switching speeds of 110 × 110 nm(2) devices were found to be Δt(ON) = 700 ps and Δt(OFF) = 2:3 ns while the switching energies were of the order of 100 fJ. We derived a new dynamical model based on the Joule heating rate of a thermally driven insulator-to-metal phase transition that accurately reproduced the experimental results, and employed the model to estimate the switching time and energy scaling behavior of such devices down to the 10 nm scale. These results indicate that threshold switches could be of practical interest in hybrid CMOS nanoelectronic circuits.
authors.affiliation: Hewlett-Packard Laboratories, Palo Alto, CA 94304, USA. Matthew.Pickett@HP.com
authors.forename: Matthew D
authors.initials: MD
authors.lastname: Pickett
authors.forename: R Stanley
authors.initials: RS
authors.lastname: Williams
mesh_terms: D004553:Electric Conductivity; D004867:Equipment Design; D019544:Equipment Failure Analysis; D006358:Hot Temperature; D049329:Nanostructures / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000648:ultrastructure*; D036103:Nanotechnology / Q000295:instrumentation*; D009556:Niobium / Q000737:chemistry*; D010087:Oxides / Q000737:chemistry*; D010316:Particle Size; D012666:Semiconductors; D012815:Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted / Q000295:instrumentation*
chemical_list: D010087:Oxides; D009556:Niobium; C073337:niobium pentoxide