Open AccessTunnel electroresistance through organic ferroelectrics
Author(s) -
Bobo Tian,
J.L. Wang,
S. Fusil,
Yang Liu,
Xiaolin Zhao,
Shijia Sun,
Hong Shen,
Tzu-Jung Lin,
Jie Sun,
ChunGang Duan,
Manuel Bibès,
Alain Barthélémy,
Brahim Dkhil,
Vincent Garcia,
Xiangjian Meng,
Junhao Chu
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
nature communications
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 5.559
H-Index - 365
ISSN - 2041-1723
DOI - 10.1038/ncomms11502
Subject(s) - ferroelectricity , materials science , piezoresponse force microscopy , quantum tunnelling , nanotechnology , optoelectronics , hysteresis , non volatile memory , tunnel junction , electronics , thin film , electrical engineering , dielectric , condensed matter physics , physics , engineering
Organic electronics is emerging for large-area applications such as photovoltaic cells, rollable displays or electronic paper. Its future development and integration will require a simple, low-power organic memory, that can be written, erased and readout electrically. Here we demonstrate a non-volatile memory in which the ferroelectric polarisation state of an organic tunnel barrier encodes the stored information and sets the readout tunnel current. We use high-sensitivity piezoresponse force microscopy to show that films as thin as one or two layers of ferroelectric poly(vinylidene fluoride) remain switchable with low voltages. Submicron junctions based on these films display tunnel electroresistance reaching 1,000% at room temperature that is driven by ferroelectric switching and explained by electrostatic effects in a direct tunnelling regime. Our findings provide a path to develop low-cost, large-scale arrays of organic ferroelectric tunnel junctions on silicon or flexible substrates.