Japanese researchers have devised a nanoscale mechanical switch that works by rapidly creating and destroying a minuscule metal bridge between a pair of wires positioned just one nanometer apart.

If each switch were used as a memory element, such a configuration would allow a memory chip made from the switches to store 2.5 gigabits per square centimeter. Today’s state-of-the-art memory chips store about 1 gigabit per square centimeter.

The researchers also used the switches to form the basic binary logic gates.