Conductive or Not – Measuring Nanoswitches for Future Computers with Atomic Precision

Jülich, 22 June 2018 – A team of German and Polish scientists at Forschungszentrum Jülich has for the first time imaged the conductivity of metal oxide surfaces with atomic resolution. Using the new technique, innovative materials for information processing can be investigated and identified more easily. The oxide materials should help computers become more powerful and energy-efficient in future. Unlike other methods, the local-conductivity atomic force microscopy (LC-AFM) method used by the researchers can also be applied to surfaces with weak or inhomogeneous conductivity, which are typical of the material class.