Switching device based on a thin film of an azo-containing polymer for application in memory cells

Results obtained on a conductive multilevel device realized with a 100 nm azo-polymer film are reported. The capability to switch between three different conductance states makes the device versatile both for Write Once Read Many and Write Many Read Many memory cell application. The analysis of the I-V curves indicates that the hysteretic conductance change with the external voltage can be explained in terms of different hopping distances existing between the nearest neighbors intervening in the two conformational states of the molecular structure.