Volatile/Nonvolatile Dual-Functional Atom Transistor

We demonstrate a conceptually new atom transistor operation by electric-field control of the nanoionic state. The new atom transistor possesses novel characteristics, such as dual functionality of selective volatile and nonvolatile operations, very small power consumption (pW), and a high ON/OFF ratio [106(volatile operation) to 108(nonvolatile operation)], in addition to complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) process compatibility enabling the development of future computing systems that fully utilize highly-integrated CMOS technology. Cyclic endurance of 104times switching was achieved with the prototype.