Nonvolatile organic field-effect transistor memory element with a polymeric gate electret

Organic field-effect transistors with a polymeric electret as gate insulator and fullerenes as a molecular semiconductor were fabricated. We observed an amplification of the drain-source current I-ds on the order of 10(4) upon applying a gate voltage V-g. Reversing the gate voltage V-g features large metastable hysteresis in the transfer characteristics I-ds (V-g) with a long retention time. The observation of a switchable channel current I-ds is proposed to originate from charge storage in the organic electret. As such, this device is a demonstration of an organic nonvolatile memory element switchable with the gate voltage. (C) 2004 American Institute of Physics.