Performance Enhancement\nof Solution-Processed Organic\nMemories by Exploiting Synergistic Organic–Inorganic Hybrid\nComposites

Abstract

Organic–inorganic hybrid composites (HCs) comprising\nfunctionalized\n2D materials have been given exceptional importance and have been\nactively employed as memory materials toward development of next-generation\nresistive memory devices. Herein, we use in situ functionalized rGO–ZnO\nHC nanofillers for the first time and report the improved memory performances\nsuch as a very low operating voltage and a high current ON/OFF ratio\nalong with good repeatability. Hybrid polymer nanocomposite (HPNC)\ndevices were fabricated by dispersing hydrothermally synthesized rGO–ZnO\nHCs in PMMA that surpass most organic resistive memory and are comparable\nto inorganic resistive memory in terms of device performances. The\nmemory characteristics of the HPNCs have been modulated and optimized\nby varying the proportion of hybrid nanofillers. Highly stable and\nrepeatable memory phenomena have been observed for all the devices\nand the switching voltages were modulated systematically. Very low\nswitching voltages in the range of ∼−0.60 to −0.74 V and high current <i>I</i>_ON/<i>I</i>_OFF ratio of\n≈ 10⁶ have been obtained for the device with the\nloading of 0.5 wt % hybrid nanofillers. The carrier transport mechanism\nthrough the devices have been elucidated with the help of a suitable\nenergy band diagram. Our study implies that HPNC materials are excellent\ncandidates for organic memory application and provide useful information\nabout the underlying carrier transport mechanism associated with resistive\nswitching phenomena.