Synergistic effect in organic field-effect transistor nonvolatile memory utilizing bimetal nanoparticles as nano-floating-gate

• High-performance OFET memory based on a bimetal nano-floating-gate is demonstrated.
• Bimetal nano-floating-gate is achieved by solution-processed blending of stabilized Ag and Pt nanoparticles.
• Bimetal device shows synergistic superiority in memory performance compared with corresponding monometal devices.
• The synergistic effect is interpreted by dipole enhancement induced nanoparticle work function change.

A solution-processed bimetal nano-floating-gate, with a combination of stabilized Ag and Pt nanoparticles, is utilized to achieve high-performance organic field-effect transistor nonvolatile memories. The device based on the Ag–Pt nano-floating-gate shows the synergistic superiority in memory performance compared with the corresponding Ag-only and Pt-only devices. The Ag and Pt nanoparticles are found to prefer hole and electron trapping, respectively. Upon the blending of the Ag and Pt nanoparticles, both hole and electron trapping are significantly enhanced and thus realize a large memory window. The dipole enhancement induced local work function change for both Ag and Pt is proposed to be responsible for the synergistic effect, and this physical picture is supported by the electronic structure results. It is concluded that using a hybrid nano-floating-gate is a promising strategy to optimize the device performance of organic field-effect transistor nonvolatile memories.

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