Patent ID: 8877871

Claim:
A switching element, comprising: two electrodes; and an organic thin film containing a metal fine particle, wherein the organic thin film is interposed between the electrodes, the organic thin film exhibits such a current bistability that the switching element has two stable resistance values in response to a voltage applied, and the metal fine particle is dispersed in the organic thin film with a metal fine particle-dispersing agent containing a polymer having a dithiocarbamate group and having a weight average molecular weight of 500 to 5,000,000, the metal fine particle-dispersing agent being a branched polymer of Formula (1): where R 1 is a hydrogen atom or a methyl group; R 2 and R 3 are each a C 1-5 alkyl group, a C 1-5 hydroxyalkyl group, or a C 7-12 arylalkyl group, or R 2 and R 3 are optionally bonded to each other to form a ring together with a nitrogen atom to represent a dithiocarbamate group; n is the number of a repeating unit structure and is an integer of 2 to 100,000; and A 1 is a group of Formula (2) or Formula (3): where A 2 is a liner, branched, or cyclic C 1-30 alkylene group that optionally contains an ether bond or an ester bond; Y 1 , Y 2 , Y 3 , and Y 4 are each a hydrogen atom, a C 1-20 alkyl group, a C 1-20 alkoxy group, a nitro group, a hydroxy group, an amino group, a carboxyl group, or a cyano group.