High-performance solution-processed polymer ferroelectric field-effect transistors

Abstract

We demonstrate a rewritable, non-volatile memory device with flexible plastic active layers deposited from solution. The memory device is a ferroelectric field-effect transistor (FeFET) made with a ferroelectric fluoropolymer and a bisalkoxy-substituted poly(p-phenylene vinylene) semiconductor material. The on- and off-state drain currents differ by several orders of magnitude, and have a long retention time, a high programming cycle endurance and short programming time. The remanent semiconductor surface charge density in the on-state has a high value of 18 mC m−2, which explains the large on/off ratio. Application of a moderate gate field raises the surface charge to 26 mC m−2, which is of a magnitude that is very difficult to obtain with conventional FETs because they are limited by dielectric breakdown of the gate insulator. In this way, the present ferroelectric–semiconductor interface extends the attainable field-effect band bending in organic semiconductors.