Switching the state of matter
New transistor harnessing strong electron correlations
enables electrical switching of the state of matter
(July 26, 2012) Sixty years after the transistor began a technological
revolution that transformed nearly every aspect of our daily lives, a new
transistor brings innovations that may help to do so again. Developed at RIKEN,
the device uses the electrostatic accumulation of electrical charge on the
surface of a strongly-correlated material to trigger bulk switching of
electronic state. Functional at room temperature and triggered by a potential
of only 1 V, the switching mechanism provides a novel building block for ultra
low power devices, non-volatile memory and optical switches based on a new
device concept.
After shrinking for many decades,
conventional electronics is approaching quantum scaling limits, motivating the
search for alternative technologies to take its place. Among these,
strongly-correlated materials, whose electrons interact with each other to produce
unusual and often useful properties, have attracted growing attention. One of
these properties is triggered in phase transitions: applying a small external
voltage can induce a very large change in electric resistance, a mechanism akin
to a switch that has many potential applications.