Two Different Memory Characteristics Controlled by the Film Thickness of Polymethacrylate Containing Pendant Azobenzothiazole

In this paper a polymethacrylate with pendent azobenzothiazole (pBAMA) was synthesized via free radical polymerization, and the polymer exhibited good solubility and thermal stability. Films of pBAMA sandwiched between bottom indium tin oxide (ITO) or Pt electrode and top Al electrodes show the excellent FLASH memory behaviors or write once read many times (WORM) behaviors according to the film thickness. Particularly, the charge transport processes during the OFF to ON states were precisely discussed to reveal the physical mechanism which is still a topic of active debate in any given device structure. One metal islands layer was confirmed lying in the pBAMA films, and this layer decided the memory characteristics of different device structures. The fabricated devices show the excellent memory characteristics as the highest ON/OFF ratio up to 10(7), and enduring 10(8) read cycles under -1 V pulse voltages, these properties promised that the memory device based on pBAMA has a potential application for the future advanced computers and digital electronics.