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Strain could enable energy-saving computer memories

Materials called ferroelectrics are being used to build energy-efficient electronics, but their benefits diminish when their size is scaled down. A proposed solution using mechanical strain could transform computer microelectronics.
By
  1. Chiara Gattinoni

    1. Chiara Gattinoni is in the Department of Physics, King’s College London, London WC2R 2LS, UK.

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The 1s and 0s in an ordinary computer are stored by applying high (1) or low (0) electric voltage to a capacitor, making it crucial to have a continual supply of electricity. Devices made from materials that can retain information without electricity would therefore save huge amounts of energy, so these ‘non-volatile’ memory systems are highly sought after. Ferroelectrics are a promising option; these materials have an intrinsic polarization that can take one of two values (corresponding to the 1 and 0 bits), and an electric field can switch between them. But ferroelectric polarization tends to disappear when these materials are very thin, which is a problem in the constant march towards miniaturization1. In a paper in Nature, Cao et al.2 present an innovative framework for designing ferroelectric materials that have a robust polarization — but are also ultrathin.

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Nature 634, 1058-1059 (2024)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-024-03393-3

References

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Competing Interests

The author declares no competing interests.

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