Flexible non-volatile optical memory thin-film transistor device with over 256 distinct levels based on an organic bicomponent blend.
Organic nanomaterials are attracting a great deal of interest for use in flexible electronic applications such as logic circuits, displays and solar cells. These technologies have already demonstrated good performances, but flexible organic memories are yet to deliver on all their promise in terms of volatility, operational voltage, write/erase speed, as well as the number of distinct attainable levels. Here, we report a multilevel non-volatile flexible optical memory thin-film transistor based on a blend of a reference polymer semiconductor, namely poly(3-hexylthiophene), and a photochromic diarylethene, switched with ultraviolet and green light irradiation. A three-terminal device featuring over 256 (8 bit storage) distinct current levels was fabricated, the memory states of which could be switched with 3 ns laser pulses. We also report robustness over 70 write-erase cycles and non-volatility exceeding 500 days. The device was implemented on a flexible polyethylene terephthalate substrate, validating the concept for integration into wearable electronics and smart nanodevices.
ISIS &icFRC, University of Strasbourg &CNRS, 8 allée Gaspard Monge, 67000 Strasbourg, France.
Tim
T
Leydecker
Department of Chemistry &IRIS Adlershof, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Brook-Taylor-Straße 2, 12489 Berlin, Germany.
Martin
M
Herder
Laboratory for Organic Matter Physics, University of Nova Gorica, Vipavska 13, SI-5000 Nova Gorica, Slovenia.
Egon
E
Pavlica
Laboratory for Organic Matter Physics, University of Nova Gorica, Vipavska 13, SI-5000 Nova Gorica, Slovenia.
Gvido
G
Bratina
Department of Chemistry &IRIS Adlershof, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Brook-Taylor-Straße 2, 12489 Berlin, Germany.
Stefan
S
Hecht
ISIS &icFRC, University of Strasbourg &CNRS, 8 allée Gaspard Monge, 67000 Strasbourg, France.
Emanuele
E
Orgiu
ISIS &icFRC, University of Strasbourg &CNRS, 8 allée Gaspard Monge, 67000 Strasbourg, France.
Paolo
P
Samorì