Charging phenomena in pentacene-gold nanoparticle memory device

The authors demonstrate a new organic memory system, using pentacene as the active semiconductor layer and citrate-stabilized gold (Au) nanoparticles as charge storage elements. A pronounced clockwise capacitance-voltage $\left(C\text{-}V\right)$ hysteresis is observed with a memory window of $1.25–2.05\mathrm{V}$ achievable under $5–10\mathrm{V}$ programing range. Similar clockwise $C\text{-}V$ hysteresis window and an almost constant full width at half maximum of the conductance peaks in conductance-voltage $\left(G\text{-}V\right)$ characteristics, obtained in the frequency range of $50\mathrm{kHz}–1\mathrm{MHz}$ , indicated that positive charge trapping/detrapping originated mainly from the Au nanoparticles.