Nonvolatile WORM memory devices based on polymethacrylate with azoanthraquinone group

Abstract

A novel polymethacrylate containing azoanthraquinone chromophore in the side chain (PMAzoaq6) was synthesized and characterized. An electronic memory device having the indium-tin oxide (ITO)/PMAzoaq6/Al sandwich structure was fabricated and its electrical bistability was investigated. The as-fabricated device was initially found to be at the OFF state and the switching threshold voltage was 1.5 V. After undergoing the OFF-to-ON transition, the device maintains the high conducting state (ON state) even after turning off the electrical power and applying a reverse bias. The device exhibits a write-once-read-many-times (WORM) memory effect with a high ON/OFF current ratio of up to 105 and a long retention time in both ON and OFF states, which demonstrated that the synthetic azoanthraquinone-containing polymer possesses a high potential to become polymeric memory devices.