Non-volatile organic field-effect transistor memory comprising sequestered metal nanoparticles in a diblock copolymer film

In this study, we fabricated p-channel-type non-volatile organic field-effect transistor (OFET) memory devices featuring an asymmetric PS-b-P4VP diblock copolymer layer incorporating high- and low-work-function metal nanoparticles (NPs) in the hydrophilic and hydrophobic blocks, respectively. We chose the highly asymmetric diblock copolymer PS56k-b-P4VP(8k) as the polymer electret to create the memory windows, and used the different work functions of the ex situ-synthesized metal NPs to tune the memory window for either p- or n-channel applications. The transfer curves of non-volatile OFET memory devices incorporating an asymmetric PS56k-b-P4VP8k layer embedded with high-work-function Pt NPs (5.65 eV) in the P4VP block exhibited a positive threshold voltage shift and a large memory window (ca. 27 V). In contrast, the transfer curves of the corresponding non-volatile OFET memory devices featuring embedded low-work-function (4.26 eV) Ag NPs exhibited a negative threshold voltage shift and a smaller memory window (ca. 19 V). This approach provides a versatile way to fabricate p- or possibly n-channel-type non-volatile organic field-effect transistor (OFET) memory devices with the same processing procedure.