Patent ID: 7759713

Claim:
A ferroelectric tunneling element comprising: a thin film layer of ferroelectric material comprised of unit cells having polarizations which can be oriented in any of a number of random directions during build-up of the thin film layer; and a pair of electrically-conductive layers disposed on opposite sides of the ferroelectric layer, one of the conductive layers being dissimilar to the other of the conductive layers in composition or construction so that when the tunneling element is below the Curie temperature of the layer of ferroelectric material, the conductive layers, by way of the dissimilarity in composition or construction between the conductive layers, act upon the unit cells of the ferroelectric layer so that the polarizations of the unit cells are arranged in a common direction and said common direction of polarization is oriented toward a predetermined one of the electrically-conductive layers of the tunneling element; and wherein the material of the one conductive layer is an n-doped semiconductor material and the material of the other conductive layer is a p-doped semiconductor material.