Electrical memory devices based on inorganic/organic nanocomposites

Nonvolatile memory devices based on hybrid inorganic/organic nanocomposites have emerged as excellent candidates for promising applications in next-generation electronic and optoelectronic devices. Among the various types of nonvolatile memory devices, organic bistable devices fabricated utilizing hybrid organic/inorganic nanocomposites have currently been receiving broad attention because of their excellent performance with high-mechanical flexibility, simple fabrication and low cost. The prospect of potential applications of nonvolatile memory devices fabricated utilizing hybrid nanocomposites has led to substantial research and development efforts to form various kinds of nanocomposites by using various methods. Generally, hybrid inorganic/organic nanocomposites are composed of organic layers containing metal nanoparticles, semiconductor quantum dots (QDs), core-shell semiconductor QDs, fullerenes, carbon nanotubes, graphene molecules or graphene oxides (GOs). This review article describes investigations of and developments in nonvolatile memory devices based on hybrid inorganic/organic nanocomposites over the past 5 years. The device structure, fabrication and electrical characteristics of nonvolatile memory devices are discussed, and the switching and carrier transport mechanisms in the hybrid nonvolatile memory devices are reviewed. Furthermore, various flexible memory devices fabricated utilizing hybrid nanocomposites are described and their future prospects are discussed. Tae Whan Kim and co-workers review how nanocomposite materials that combine organic and inorganic materials are attractive for use in memory components. A wide variety of structures have been used to store information by switching between two states, making for either volatile or nonvolatile memory systems; well-known examples of both types are random access memory (RAM) and computer hard disks, respectively. Among those, hybrid organic-inorganic devices–such as a polymer matrix in which metal nanoparticles have been incorporated–are easy to make, cost-effective, mechanically flexible, and efficient. Further studies will endeavour to better understand the memories' mechanisms and improve their switching speed and reproducibility. These hybrid structures are particularly promising for the development of flexible memories required to construct the next generation of portable devices. Nonvolatile memory devices based on hybrid inorganic/organic nanocomposites have emerged as excellent candidates for promising applications in next-generation electronic and optoelectronic devices because of their advantages of high-mechanical flexibility, simple fabrication and low cost. As shown in the figure, the resistive switching of a nanocomposite sandwiched between two electrodes enables the cross-point where A and B cross to work as a memory cell for data storage. To date, various nanomaterials and device structures have been developed to optimize the memory properties of hybrid nanocomposites.