Fully Photoswitchable Phototransistor Memory Comprising Perovskite Quantum Dot-Based Hybrid Nanocomposites as a Photoresponsive Floating Gate

ACS Appl Mater Interfaces. 2023 Jan 11;15(1):1675-1684. doi: 10.1021/acsami.2c18064. Epub 2022 Dec 23.

Abstract

Tremendous research efforts have been dedicated into the field of photoresponsive nonvolatile memory devices owing to their advantages of fast transmitting speed, low latency, and power-saving property that are suitable for replacing current electrical-driven electronics. However, the reported memory devices still rely on the assistance of gate bias to program them, and a real fully photoswitchable transistor memory is still rare. Herein, we report a phototransistor memory device comprising polymer/perovskite quantum dot (QD) hybrid nanocomposites as a photoresponsive floating gate. The perovskite QDs offer an effective discreteness with an excellent photoresponse that are suitable for photogate application. In addition, a series of ultraviolet (UV)-sensitive insulating polymer hosts were designed to investigate the effect of UV light on the memory behavior. We found that a fully photoswitchable memory device was fulfilled by using the independent and sequential photoexcitation between a UV-sensitive polymer host and a visible light-sensitive QD photogates, which produced decent photoresponse, memory switchability, and highly stable memory retention with a memory ratio of 104 over 104 s. This study not only unraveled the mystery in the fully photoswitchable functionality of nonvolatile memory but also enlightened their potential in the next-generation electronics for light-fidelity application.

Keywords: acenes; field-effect transistors; floating gate; perovskite quantum dots; photomemory.