Quantum tunnelling and charge accumulation in organic ferroelectric memory diodes

Title

Quantum tunnelling and charge accumulation in organic ferroelectric memory diodes

 Author

Ghittorelli, M. (University of Brescia)
Lenz, Thomas (Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research; Graduate School Materials Science in Mainz)
Dehsari, H.S. (Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research)
Zhao (赵冬), Dong (Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research; Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research)
Asadi, Kamal (Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research)
Blom, Paul W.M. (Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research)
Kovács-Vajna, Z. M.
de Leeuw, D.M. (TU Delft Novel Aerospace Materials)
Torricelli, F. (University of Brescia)

Date

2017

 Abstract

Non-volatile memories—providing the information storage functionality—are crucial circuit components. Solution-processed organic ferroelectric memory diodes are the non-volatile memory candidate for flexible electronics, as witnessed by the industrial demonstration of a 1 kbit reconfigurable memory fabricated on a plastic foil. Further progress, however, is limited owing to the lack of understanding of the device physics, which is required for the technological implementation of high-density arrays. Here we show that ferroelectric diodes operate as vertical field-effect transistors at the pinch-off. The tunnelling injection and charge accumulation are the fundamental mechanisms governing the device operation. Surprisingly, thermionic emission can be disregarded and the on-state current is not space charge limited. The proposed model explains and unifies a wide range of experiments, provides important design rules for the implementation of organic ferroelectric memory diodes and predicts an ultimate theoretical array density of up to 1012 bit cm 2.

 To reference this document use:

http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:068607dc-c149-41e5-8ccf-44a54d047d21

 DOI

https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms15841

 ISSN

2041-1723

 Source

Nature Communications

 Part of collection

Institutional Repository

 Document type

journal article

 Rights

© 2017 M. Ghittorelli, Thomas Lenz, H.S. Dehsari, Dong Zhao (赵冬), Kamal Asadi, Paul W.M. Blom, Z. M. Kovács-Vajna, D.M. de Leeuw, F. Torricelli
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