Filament theory based WORM memory devices using aluminum/poly(9-vinylcarbazole)/aluminum structures

Abstract

Spin coated poly(N-vinylcarbazole) (PVK) sandwiched between thermally evaporated aluminum (Al) electrodes on a glass substrate showed unipolar Write Once Read Many times (WORM) characteristics. The pristine devices were in the low resistance ON state exhibiting ohmic behavior and at a voltage near −2 V, they switched abruptly to the high resistance OFF state showing space charge limited current (SCLC). We suggest that the rupturing of metallic filaments due to Joule heating may explain the effect. The WORM devices exhibited an ON/OFF ratio of 10⁸, a retention of 1000 s and an endurance of ∼10⁶ cycles in both ON and OFF states.