Conducting mechanism of atom switch with polymer solid-electrolyte

Low-temperature characterization has been performed on atom switch to clarify conducting mechanism determining the device performance. The low resistive state (<;400Ω) shows metallic conduction accompanied with a high residual resistance. In the high resistive state (>;10⁸Ω), the resistance exponentially decreases with temperature based on Poole-Frenkel (P-F) conduction. In the intermediate range (10⁵~10⁷Ω), the resistance has small temperature dependence and the current is suppressed at the low-voltage regime due to the charging effect at Cu residues in a solid-electrolyte. The polymer solid-electrolyte (PSE) with forming-free operation enables the complete collection of the Cu residues without destroying the electrolyte, which is essential for the atom switch to keep a high OFF/ON resistance ratio.