Nanowire devices, crossed

Fig. 8. Schematic of the procedure used for fabrication of nanoscale molecular-switch devices by imprint lithography [62]. (a) Deposition of a molecular film on Ti/Pt nanowires and their micron-scale connections to contact pads, (b) Blanket evaporation of a 7.5 nm Ti protective layer, (c) Imprinting of 10 nm Pt layers with a mold that was oriented perpendicular to the bottom electrodes and aligned to ensure that the top and bottom nanowires crossed, (d) Reactive ion etching with CF4 and O2 (4 1) to remove the blanket Ti protective layer.

These results for contacts, which do not have an interfacial oxide layer, but do show switching properties, indicate that the oxide layer may assist the switching process, but can not be the main reason for the phenomenon. This is supported by other reports on switching in configurations without oxide interlayers [12, 13]. Remarkably, these reports also relate to structures with very small cross sections, i.e. an STM-tip and nanowires. Therefore, the oxide layer seems to be essential to achieve stable switching in devices with relatively large-area contacts. 

---