Single atom switch on silicon:
results and prospects
This is an abstract
for a talk to be given at the
Fifth
Foresight Conference on Molecular Nanotechnology.
There will be a link from here to the full article when it is
available on the web.
A first step towards practical atom-scale electronics would be
a single-atom binary switch that is silicon based, can be made in
large numbers, and is thermally robust. We are investigating the
function of a single-hydrogen binary switch on H-passivated
Si(100) and find that it meets these requirements. Obvious
applications of the switch include an atom-scale register. Here,
we discuss both the creation of a register as well as the
addressing of single bits.
The mechanism of devices depend on the interaction between
neighbouring switches. The interaction comes from the repulsion
of the negatively charged dangling bonds in two neighbouring
switches. We show how it is in principle possible to create both
AND and OR logical operations using interacting switches, and
describe the current status of putting these ideas into practice.
*Corresponding Address:
Ulrich J. Quaade, Technical University of Denmark, Bldg. 345e,
DK-2800 Lyngby, Denmark, ph: +45-4525-5736, fax: +45-4525-7762,
email: [email protected], http://www.mic.dtu.dk/mic/sta
ff/uq.htm
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