Effect of device structure on the resistive switching characteristics of organic polymers fabricated through all printed technology

Abstract

Developments in organic bi-stable non-volatile memory devices have shown that organic materials are essential for the next generation of electrical memory unit owing to their low cost, high flexibility and large scalability. This study depicts an important aspect of organic memory devices by observing the effect of changing device structure on its switching characteristics. Memory devices with a bilayer and bulk-heterojunction structure were fabricated through an all printed technology by utilizing two organic polymers such as MEH: PPV and PMMA. Silver (Ag) was selected as the top and bottom electrode due to its high conductivity and easy processing. Though identical polymers were used in both device structures, but interestingly change in structure caused change in properties. It was observed that bilayer structure had much higher switching ratio and stability against various biasing cycles as compared to its bulk-heterojunction counterpart. Superior switching characteristics of bilayer structure were due to the presence of a well-defined interface between both polymers. Bulk-heterojunction device suffers the drawback of phase separation in a single organic layer between the two polymers.