Electrically bistable memory device based on spin-coated molecular complex thin film

We present an organic electrically bistable memory device based on the molecular complex film composed of tetracyanoquinodimethane and a soluble methanofullerene derivative [6,6]-phenyl C61-butyric acid methyl ester. The device has an Al/molecules/Al sandwich-like structure. The molecular layer was formed by spin-coating technique instead of expensive vacuum deposition method. The current-voltage characteristics show that the device switches from the initial "low" conduction state to "high" conduction state upon application of external electric field at room temperature. The on/off ratio is up to 10⁶. Either state has been found to remain stable for more than five months, even after the external electric field is removed. The device presented is of potential use for low-cost write-once-read-many-times memory applications.