Flexible rewritable organic memory devices using nitrogen-doped CNTs/PEDOT:PSS composites

Nonvolatile rewritable organic memory devices based on poly(3,4-ethylene dioxythiophene):poly(styrenesulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS) and nitrogen doped multi-walled carbon nanotube (NCNT) nanocomposites were fabricated on glass and PET substrates. Organic memory devices with bistable resistive switching were obtained using very low NCTN concentration (similar to 0.002 wt%) in the polymeric matrix. The memory devices exhibited a good ON/OFF ratio of approximately three orders of magnitude, a good retention time of 10(4) s under operating voltages <= vertical bar 4V vertical bar and a few hundredths of write-read-erase-read cycles. The bistable resistive switching is mainly attributed to the creation of oxygen vacancies. These defects are introduced into the thin native Al oxide (AlOx) layer on the bottom electrode during the first voltage sweep. The well-dispersed NCNTs immersed in PEDOT:PSS play a key role as conductive channels for the electronic transport, hindering the electron trapping at the AlOx-polymer interface and inducing a soft dielectric breakdown of the AlOx layer. These PEDOT:PSS NCNTs memory devices are to easy to apply in flexible low-cost technology and provide the possibility of large-scale integration. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.