Quantum tunnelling and charge accumulation in organic ferroelectric memory diodes
M. Ghittorelli (University of Brescia)
Thomas Lenz (Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research, Graduate School Materials Science in Mainz)
H.S. Dehsari (Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research)
Dong Zhao (Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research, Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research)
Kamal Asadi (Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research)
Paul W.M. Blom (Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research)
D.M. de Leeuw (Novel Aerospace Materials)
F. Torricelli (University of Brescia)
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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.
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