Tuning the electrical switching of polymer/fullerene nanocomposite thin film devices by control of morphology

The working principles of thin film organic memory devices remain debated and tunability has been less presented. We show that the nanostructure of [6,6]-phenyl-C61-butyric acid methyl ester (PCBM) and polystyrene (PS) allows facile tuning of switching behavior for low PCBM concentrations upon annealing above the glass transition temperature of PS. By increasing the PCBM concentration from 2 to 6 wt %, the switching voltage from off to on state during the first voltage sweep systematically decreases. In subsequent voltage sweeps negative differential resistance effect is observed. Above ca. 7 wt %, chains of PCBM clusters couple the electrodes, which leads to Ohmic behavior.