title: Programmable polymer thin film and non-volatile memory device.
abstract: Building on the success of organic electronic devices, such as light-emitting diodes and field-effect transistors, procedures for fabricating non-volatile organic memory devices are now being explored. Here, we demonstrate a novel organic memory device fabricated by solution processing. Programmable electrical bistability was observed in a device made from a polystyrene film containing gold nanoparticles and 8-hydroxyquinoline sandwiched between two metal electrodes. The as-prepared device, which is in a low-conductivity state, displays an abrupt transition to a high-conductivity state under an external bias of 2.8 V. These two states differ in conductivity by about four orders of magnitude. Applying a negative bias of 1.8 V causes the device to return to the low-conductivity state. The electronic transition is attributed to the electric-field-induced charge transfer between the gold nanoparticles and 8-hydroxyquinoline. The transition from the low- to the high-conductivity state takes place in nanoseconds, and is non-volatile, indicating that the device may be used for low-cost, high-density memory storage.
authors.affiliation: Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of California, Los Angeles, California 90095, USA.
authors.forename: Jianyong
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Ouyang
authors.forename: Chih-Wei
authors.initials: CW
authors.lastname: Chu
authors.forename: Charles R
authors.initials: CR
authors.lastname: Szmanda
authors.forename: Liping
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Ma
authors.forename: Yang
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Yang
mesh_terms: D004553:Electric Conductivity; D004563:Electrochemistry / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods; D004566:Electrodes; D004581:Electronics; D004867:Equipment Design; D019544:Equipment Failure Analysis; D016247:Information Storage and Retrieval; D008422:Materials Testing; D008567:Membranes, Artificial; D015125:Oxyquinoline / Q000737:chemistry*; D011108:Polymers / Q000737:chemistry; D011137:Polystyrenes / Q000737:chemistry*
chemical_list: D008567:Membranes, Artificial; D011108:Polymers; D011137:Polystyrenes; D015125:Oxyquinoline