Electrical switching and transport in the Si/organic monolayer/Au and Si/organic bilayer/Al devices

In this letter, the authors investigated the switching and transport characteristics of Si/organic bilayer/Al and Si/organic monolayer/Au devices. The former devices, with two different organic layers, exhibit negative differential resistance (NDR), and the switching process can be manipulated. The irrelevancy of the stacking sequence in regard to the NDR suggests that the interface between these two layers accounts for this phenomenon. On the other hand, using gold as the top electrode, the device was found to exhibit distinct bistability with an on/off ratio up to 105. The current-voltage characteristics suggest that the filament paths that formed as a result of gold diffusion are responsible for the observed bistability.