The present invention generally relates to
nanotechnology and submicroelectronic devices that can be used in circuitry and, in some cases, to nanoscale wires and other nanostructures able to
encode data. One aspect of the invention provides a nanoscale wire or other
nanostructure having a region that is electrically-polarizable, for example, a nanoscale wire may comprise a core and an electrically-polarizable shell. In some cases, the electrically-polarizable region is able to retain its polarization state in the absence of an external
electric field. All, or only a portion, of the electricallypolarizable region may be polarized, for example, to
encode one or more bits of data. In one set of embodiments, the electrically-polarizable region comprises a functional
oxide or a ferroelectric
oxide material, for example, BaTiO3,
lead zirconium titanate, or the like. In some embodiments, the nanoscale wire (or other
nanostructure) may further comprise other materials, for example, a separation region separating the electricallypolarizable region from other regions of the nanoscale wire. For example, in a nanoscale wire, one or more intermediate shells may separate the core from the electricallypolarizable shell.