TY  - JOUR
AU  - Zhang, Weiqiang
AU  - Liu, Hongshuang
AU  - Lu, Jinsheng
AU  - Ni, Lifa
AU  - Liu, Haitao
AU  - Li, Qiang
AU  - Qiu, Min
AU  - Xu, Bingqian
AU  - Lee, Takhee
AU  - Zhao, Zhikai
AU  - Wang, Xianghui
AU  - Wang, Maoning
AU  - Wang, Tao
AU  - Offenhäusser, Andreas
AU  - Mayer, Dirk
AU  - Hwang, Wang-Taek
AU  - Xiang, Dong
TI  - Atomic switches of metallic point contacts by plasmonic heating
JO  - Light
VL  - 8
IS  - 1
SN  - 2047-7538
CY  - London
PB  - Nature Publishing Group
M1  - FZJ-2019-03658
SP  - 34
PY  - 2019
AB  - Electronic switches with nanoscale dimensions satisfy an urgent demand for further device miniaturization. A recent heavily investigated approach for nanoswitches is the use of molecular junctions that employ photochromic molecules that toggle between two distinct isoforms. In contrast to the reports on this approach, we demonstrate that the conductance switch behavior can be realized with only a bare metallic contact without any molecules under light illumination. We demonstrate that the conductance of bare metallic quantum contacts can be reversibly switched over eight orders of magnitude, which substantially exceeds the performance of molecular switches. After the switch process, the gap size between two electrodes can be precisely adjusted with subangstrom accuracy by controlling the light intensity or polarization. Supported by simulations, we reveal a more general and straightforward mechanism for nanoswitching behavior, i.e., atomic switches can be realized by the expansion of nanoelectrodes due to plasmonic heating.
LB  - PUB:(DE-HGF)16
C6  - pmid:30937165
UR  - <Go to ISI:>//WOS:000463971600001
DO  - DOI:10.1038/s41377-019-0144-z
UR  - https://juser.fz-juelich.de/record/863649
ER  -