The project focuses on new oxide materials that may enable a new generation of electronic devices for computing. The project will offer interdisciplinary training of graduate and undergraduate students in new electronic devices, materials, and circuits. Their training will be fostered by close collaboration and student exchanges between the investigators' groups at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB) and Ohio State University (OSU). UCSB has a diverse undergraduate population and is a minority/Hispanic-serving institution. Regular phone conferences with industry stakeholders and related activities will ensure knowledge transfer to industry and expose the participating students to matters relevant to the transitioning of new materials and devices into emergent technologies.
Novel electronic devices will be realized that employ electric fields to control the unique electronic properties of oxide materials, in particular, their ability to change the electrical resistance by a large amount. These devices will be investigated for their potential as alternatives to current transistor devices used for computing, which are based on conventional semiconductor materials, such as silicon. The project is motivated by unique opportunities, including the potential for abrupt switching and a reduction in the energy that is required to switch. Close collaboration between materials scientists at UCSB and electrical engineers at OSU will focus on optimizing oxide materials, their scientific understanding, and their control using electric fields, and establishing the device characteristics relevant for applications. The results from this project will contribute to a solid-state electronics technology that has been underexplored.
