Guest Editorial Special Topic on Oxide Electronics for Beyond CMOS Logic and Memory

Abstract

As is well known, the traditional electronics as well as exploratory logic and memory devices have relied on mono- or bi-elemental semiconductors for many decades. Oxides served an indispensable, but still secondary role of capacitor dielectrics, insulation, tunneling barriers, and so on. The functionality of oxides putting them at the center stage of computing (such as conduction, ferroelectricity, magnetic/spin, piezoelectric, ion drift, metal–insulator transitions, etc.) was researched from the material science side throughout this time. However, the work on realistic computing devices based on these properties really took off in the past decade. Oxides allow for a wider variety of phenomena which can be utilized (multiferroic materials, spin waves, to name a few). They require more sophisticated theoretical treatment (such as indirect exchange, Dzyaloshinskii–Moriya interaction, and topological materials) than traditional semi-conductors. In some cases, the single crystal state and close to atomically flat interfaces require novel fabrication methods. All these provide exciting opportunities to advance computing.