Electrical Switching and Phase Transformation in Silver Selenide Nanowires

• Published in: Journal of the American Chemical Society Vol. 129; no. 14; pp. 4116 - 4117
• Main Authors: Schoen, David T, Xie, Chong, Cui, Yi
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States American Chemical Society 11.04.2007
• ISSN: 0002-7863; 1520-5126
• DOI: 10.1021/ja068365s

We report for the first time the electrical transport in solid-state electrolyte nanowires. Single nanowire transport and in situ transmission electron microscopy studies show that Ag2Se nanowires can be high conducting orthorhombic β-Ag2Se or low conducting cubic α-Ag2Se. It is also the first time that α-Ag2Se is found to be stable at room temperature. A threshold switching phenomenon exists in the low conducting α-Ag2Se with an on−off ratio up to 7 order magnitude. These results provide useful new information for exploring solid-state electrolyte nanowires as resistive switching memory devices.