Berlin 2005 – wissenschaftliches Programm
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TT: Tiefe Temperaturen
TT 8: Posters Transport
TT 8.16: Poster
Freitag, 4. März 2005, 14:00–18:00, Poster TU C
Switching an Electrical Current with Atoms: the Reproducible Operation of a Multi-Atom Relay — •Fangqing Xie1, Christian Obermair1, and Thomas Schimmel1,2 — 1Institute for Applied Physics, University of Karlsruhe, D-76128 Karlsruhe, Germany — 2Institute of Nanotechnology, Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe, D-76021 Karlsruhe, Germany
The demonstration of a multi-atom quantum point contact relay is reported, which can be reversibly switched between a quantized conducting "on-state" and an insulating "off-state" by applying an electrochemical control potential to a separate, third electrode, the control or gate electrode [1,2]. The transition occurs directly from the conducting "on-state" at 5 G0 (G0 = 2e2/h being the conductance quantum) to the insulating "off-state". No stable intermediate levels are observed during the switching process, indicating a reproducible bistable reconfiguration of one single multi-atom contact rather than a deposition and dissolution of different parallel contacts. The results demonstrate the feasibility and reproducible operation of a configurable electronic device based on a multi-atom contact, which exhibits the functionality of an atomic relay or a transistor, opening intriguing perspectives for electronics and logics on the atomic scale.
[1] F.-Q. Xie, Ch. Obermair and Th. Schimmel, Solid State Communications 132, 437-442 (2004).
[2] F.-Q. Xie, L. Nittler, Ch. Obermair and Th. Schimmel, Phys. Rev. Lett. 93, 128303 (2004).