Resistive Switching in a Printed Nanolayer of Poly(4-vinylphenol)

Resistive switching in organic resistive switches fabricated with a sandwich structure of indium tin oxide (ITO)-coated polyethylene terephthalate (PET)/poly(4-vinylphenol) (PVP)/silver (Ag) is reported. A single layer of PVP was used as an active layer in the sandwich structure between the two electrodes. The active layer of the polymer was atomized with the electrohydrodynamic atomization technique on the ITO-coated PET. The film thickness of the PVP polymeric layer on the ITO-coated PET was measured to be 110 nm. The surface morphology was characterized by field-emission scanning electron microscopy, and the purity of the film was examined by x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy analysis. Electrical current–voltage (I–V) measurements confirmed the memristive behavior of the sandwich device. The effect of the current compliance (CC) on resistive switching in the fabricated sandwich structure was also explored. The PVP-based organic resistive switch showed a CC-dependent OFF/ON ratio and memory window. Resistive switching memory effects were prominent at low CC up to nanoamps. The as-fabricated device was operated with low operational voltages for both polarities with OFF/ON ratio greater than 100:1. The robustness of the fabricated memristor was checked with multiple voltage sweeps, and the retention time is reported to be over 100 min.