Development of Three-Terminal Atomic Switches and Related Topics

Abstract

Three-terminal atomic switches control formation and annihilation of a conductive path between a source and a drain by the electric field applied through a gate electrode. Advantage of the three-terminal atomic switches to the two-terminal atomic switches is that a signal line of the three-terminal atomic switches is separated from a signal line, which increases their controllability especially when used as logic devices. Three-terminal atomic switches are classified into two types by a species of controlled ions that form a conductive path. One type controls metal cations, so that a conductive path is a metal filament. The other type controls oxygen ions, so that a conductive path is an oxygen deficient conductive region. Both types show nonvolatile switching with a high on/off ratio over five orders of magnitude.