Cover Picture: Resistive switching of crossbar memories with carbon nanotube electrodes (Phys. Status Solidi RRL 5–6/2011)

Resistive random access memory (RRAM) is a promising candidate for future memories. However, with traditional metal electrodes made by lithography, the scaling potential of RRAM is limited. As demonstrated in the Rapid Research Letter by J. Shen et al. (pp. 205–207), a carbon nanotube/ oxide/metal/crossed carbon nanotube (COMC) structure was first fabricated and shown to be capable of stable bipolar resistive switching. The linewidth of the crossbar is smaller than 20 nm and can be further scaled down by using smaller carbon nanotubes. The reset current is as small as 10 μA, which is of great advantage for low power applications. Electroforming-free planar devices were also fabricated to be compared with the COMC devices. The resistive switching with carbon nanotube electrodes could be extended to other one-dimensional nanowires or nanotubes with cylindrical surface.