Bistable switching in organic thin films

Abstract

Field-induced switching between two impedance states has been observed in both pure and doped organic thin films. Aromatic hydrocarbon films display this phenomenon reproducibly when a mobile electrode material such as gallium-indium alloy is employed. Controlled doping of the hydrocarbons with electron acceptors leads to reproducible switching characteristics which are not electrode dependent. For the doped films, activation energies of conduction typical of bulk charge-transfer complexes characterize the low impedance states whereas the activation energies of the high impedance states are typical of organic insulating films. It is suggested that the switching mechanism involves the formation of conducting filaments.