Metal∕organic∕metal bistable memory devices

We report a bistable organic memory made of a single organic layer embedded between two electrodes, and compare to the organic∕metal nanoparticle∕organic tri-layers device [Ma, Liu, and Yang, Appl. Phys. Lett. 80, 2997 (2002)]. We demonstrate that the two devices exhibit similar temperature-dependent behaviors, a thermally activated behavior in their low conductive state (off-state) and a slightly “metallic” behavior in their high conductive state (on-state). This feature emphasizes a similar origin for the memory effect. Owing to their similar behavior, the one layer memory is advantageous in terms of fabrication cost and simplicity.