Better Organic Ternary Memory Performance through Self-Assembled Alkyltrichlorosilane Monolayers on Indium Tin Oxide (ITO) Surfaces

Chemistry. 2017 Nov 16;23(64):16393-16400. doi: 10.1002/chem.201704059. Epub 2017 Oct 24.

Abstract

Recently, surface engineering of the indium tin oxide (ITO) electrode of sandwich-like organic electric memory devices was found to effectively improve their memory performances. However, there are few methods to modify the ITO substrates. In this paper, we have successfully prepared alkyltrichlorosilane self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) on ITO substrates, and resistive random access memory devices are fabricated on these surfaces. Compared to the unmodified ITO substrates, organic molecules (i.e., 2-((4-butylphenyl)amino)-4-((4-butylphenyl)iminio)-3-oxocyclobut-1-en-1-olate, SA-Bu) grown on these SAM-modified ITO substrates have rougher surface morphologies but a smaller mosaicity. The organic layer on the SAM-modified ITO further aged to eliminate the crystalline phase diversity. In consequence, the ternary memory yields are effectively improved to approximately 40-47 %. Our results suggest that the insertion of alkyltrichlorosilane self-assembled monolayers could be an efficient method to improve the performance of organic memory devices.

Keywords: ITO surfaces; alkyltrichlorosilanes; memory devices; surface chemistry.