Communications of the ACM
New, Multifunctional Electronic Devices May Soon Be Possible, New Research Suggests
A schematic drawing of the multiferroic tunnel junction of two polarization configurations. The red layer is the ferroelectric barrier and the green layer is the interface that undergoes metal-to-insulator as well as magnetic-phase transition when the bar
Credit:Li lab/Penn State University
Penn State University researchers have designed a material interface that can improve the functionality of non-silicon-based electronic devices as well as enhanced nanoelectronic components, says professor Qi Li.
"Our goal was to create a multifunctional device with improved function by adding...a ferroelectric-magnetic interface--a ferroelectric layer replacing the insulator barrier and a special interface layer--built into the device that acts to change from metal to insulator as well as from ferromagnetic to antiferromagnetic in response to the negative or positive charge polarization of the barrier," Li says.
The researchers say the device enhances the binary-state resistance difference by up to 10,000 percent. Li says the interface is special because its oxide materials are multiferroic, which means that one side is magnetic and the other is ferroelectric.
"Because our new interface combines both magnetic and ferroelectric properties and because we utilize the coupling effect between the two, we can reproduce a similar binary system with a much larger resistance difference between the two charge-polarization directions," Li says.
The system will result in sharper switching or fewer memory errors and better and faster information processing and storage power.
From Penn State Live
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