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Cover Picture: phys. stat. sol. (RRL) 3/2008
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
physica status solidi (rrl) – rapid research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Reports
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.786
H-Index - 68
eISSN - 1862-6270
pISSN - 1862-6254
DOI - 10.1002/pssr.200890004
Subject(s) - cover (algebra) , protein filament , resistive touchscreen , nanotechnology , resistive random access memory , scalability , electrical engineering , materials science , optoelectronics , computer science , physics , engineering physics , chemistry , voltage , composite material , engineering , mechanical engineering , operating system
Ge 0.3 Se 0.7 is used in non‐volatile memory devices as insulating matrix for Ag ion migration and filament formation and dissolution. Under appropriate bias, the initially high resistive film switches to a low resistive state due to conductive filament formation. Under reverse bias the high resistance state is obtained again. Conductive atomic force microscopy allows local current–voltage measurements on single filaments. In their Rapid Research Letter on p. 129 the authors show the influence of the maximum current during filament formation on the topography. Filaments with diameters as small as 20 nm are switched showing the prospect of high scalability of memory devices based on cation migration in chalcogenide thin films. The first author, Christina Schindler, is Ph.D. student at the Institute of Solid State Research (IFF‐6), Research Centre Jülich, Germany. Her area of research is resistive switching in electrochemical metallization memory devices. More articles related to AFM and similar techniques or applications can be found in our Focus on force microscopy (see p. A31).