title: Giant piezoresistive on/off ratios in rare-earth chalcogenide thin films enabling nanomechanical switching.
abstract: Sophisticated microelectromechanical systems for device and sensor applications have flourished in the past decade. These devices exploit piezoelectric, capacitive, and piezoresistive effects, and coupling between them. However, high-performance piezoresistivity (as defined by on/off ratio) has primarily been observed in macroscopic single crystals. In this Letter, we show for the first time that rare-earth monochalcogenides in thin film form can modulate a current by more than 1000 times due to a pressure-induced insulator to metal transition. Furthermore, films as thin as 8 nm show a piezoresistive response. The combination of high performance and scalability make these promising candidates for nanoscale applications, such as the recently proposed piezoelectronic transistor (PET). The PET would mechanically couple a piezoelectric thin film with a piezoresistive switching layer, potentially scaling to higher speeds and lower powers than today's complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor technology.
authors.affiliation: IBM Research Division, T. J. Watson Research Center , P.O. Box 218, Yorktown Heights, New York 10598, United States.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Copel
authors.forename: M A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Kuroda
authors.forename: M S
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Gordon
authors.forename: X-H
authors.initials: XH
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: S S
authors.initials: SS
authors.lastname: Mahajan
authors.forename: G J
authors.initials: GJ
authors.lastname: Martyna
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Moumen
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Armstrong
authors.forename: S M
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Rossnagel
authors.forename: T M
authors.initials: TM
authors.lastname: Shaw
authors.forename: P M
authors.initials: PM
authors.lastname: Solomon
authors.forename: T N
authors.initials: TN
authors.lastname: Theis
authors.forename: J J
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Yurkas
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.forename: D M
authors.initials: DM
authors.lastname: Newns
mesh_terms: D008567:Membranes, Artificial; D008674:Metals, Rare Earth / Q000737:chemistry*; D055617:Micro-Electrical-Mechanical Systems; D010087:Oxides / Q000737:chemistry; D012666:Semiconductors
chemical_list: D008567:Membranes, Artificial; D008674:Metals, Rare Earth; D010087:Oxides