Material dependence of switching speed of atomic switches made from silver sulfide and from copper sulfide

Abstract

We developed an atomic switch consisting of an ionic and electronic mixed conductor electrode and a counter metal electrode, having a space of about 1 nm between them. Formation and annihilation of a conductive atomic bridge is controlled using a solid electrochemical reaction, which is caused by applying a certain bias voltage between the electrodes. In this study, we measured the switching time of atomic switches made of silver sulfide and copper sulfide. The switching times were different, and this difference can be attributed to the different activation energies and chemical potentials of the materials.