A Nanoelectromechanical Single-Atom Switch

Abstract

We have exploited the electromechanical properties of gated mechanical break junctions to form single-atom relays. The gate voltage can be used to reversibly switch between a monatomic contact with a conductance around 2e(2)/h and the tunneling regime. In tunneling, the source-drain conductance varies smoothly with gate voltage. The characteristics of the devices can be understood within a simple continuum model. It indicates that the elastic properties of the substrate facilitate the electromechanical tuning and that the details of the switching depend sensitively on the nanoscale geometry of the electrode tips.

A Nano-Transistor Based on Gate-Induced Thermal Switching

“…The device has some similarities with one built by Martin et al (2009), but there are important differences. The latter, which is realized on the  m rather than the nm lengthscale, depends on a mechanical process (wire bending) for its operation, leading to a slower response which effectively reduces the array of functionalities of the device.…”

“…The latter, which is realized on the  m rather than the nm lengthscale, depends on a mechanical process (wire bending) for its operation, leading to a slower response which effectively reduces the array of functionalities of the device. On the other hand, the device of Martin et al (2009) can serve as an on-off switch, whereas the device discussed here can change only between different nonzero conductances. The two devices are therefore best viewed as complementary, with each specialized to different but useful functions.…”

“…A nanoelectromechanical switch similar to the device we propose has recently been built by Martin et al (2009) on a somewhat larger scale. However, the larger scale of their device results in a different physical process responsible for the switching.…”

“…Martin et al argue that the switching in their device is the result of a bending of the wire due to an electrostatic attraction between the wire and the gate. Such bending would be negligible in the device we envision, which would be much shorter (few nm as opposed to close to a µm in Martin et al (2009), and the switching would be instead driven by stochastic events as described above. The different scales, configurations, and physics underlying the operation of the two lead to different device characteristics and functionalities; we'll review these at the end of this article.…”

Dendrimers as Dopant Atom Carriers

“…Besides silver, Pb can be also made to single atom transistors by a similar method [12]. Moreover, Martin et al [13] used the elastic properties of single atom relays and substrates to control single-atom switch in which the gate voltage can be performed to regulate the switch "on-off" state between the monatomic contact condition and the tunneling regime state. These works opened a new horizon to investigate atomic level switches, although the devices were made in electrolyte solution.…”