%0 Journal Article
%K Electric fields
%K Electric-field control
%K Random access storage
%K controlled nanocrack
%K Nano-electromechanical
%K Nanoelectromechanical switches
%K Non-volatile memory
%K Non-volatile random access memory
%K Off-state leakage current
%K ON/OFF current ratio
%K Electric switches
%A Q Luo
%A Z Guo
%A H Huang
%A Q Zou
%A X Jiang
%A S Zhang
%A H Wang
%A M Song
%A B Zhang
%A H Chen
%A H Gu
%A G Han
%A X Yang
%A X Zou
%A K.-Y Wang
%A Z Liu
%A J Hong
%A Ramamoorthy Ramesh
%A L You
%B IEEE Electron Device Letters
%D 2019
%G eng
%I Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.
%P 1209-1212
%R 10.1109/LED.2019.2917924
%T Nanoelectromechanical switches by controlled switchable cracking
%V 40
%X Nanoelectromechanical (NEM) switches could surmount the Boltzmann Tyranny in the current charge-carrier systems. However, thus far, practical implementations of the NEM systems have been hindered by the complicated fabrication processes of forming the extremely small air gap. Here, we realize a very simple NEM switch by exploiting a switchable nanocrack controlled by an electric field in a metallic alloy-ferroelectric heterostructure. The crack is formed in a controllable manner in terms of its initiation, location, and orientation through a bridge-like structure. The open and closed states of the crack are programmed under a cyclic electric field. In addition, an abrupt switching behavior with a nonvolatile high ON/OFF current ratio (>107) is measured owing to the near-zero OFF-state leakage current across the crack. This simple nanocrack switch presents a novel opportunity in the NEM systems, which can be used as a new nonvolatile random-access memory and logic. © 1980-2012 IEEE.