By sandwiching a semiconducting or insulating layer between two metallic electrodes and applying an electric field, its resistance can be changed by factors sometimes larger than 1000. A reverse electric field then brings it back to its original value. This property has been likened to dielectric breakdown, and used to make electronic memory devices.

Cindy Karina and Manasa Kaniselvan from the Nano-TCAD group were co-lecturers for the first-year Digital Electronics block course, which is part of Ashesi University’s (in Ghana) new collaborative degree program with ETH. Teaching such highly engaged and driven students was truly a lot of fun!