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Chemical modification of the electronic conducting states in polymer nanodevices

Nature Nanotechnology volume 2, pages 237–242 (2007)Cite this article

Abstract

Organic materials offer new electronic functionality not available in inorganic devices. However, the integration of organic compounds within nanoscale electronic circuitry poses new challenges for materials physics and chemistry. Typically, the electronic states in organic materials are energetically misaligned with the Fermi level of metal contacts. Here, we study the voltage-induced change in conductivity in nanoscale devices comprising a monolayer of polyelectrolyte macromolecules. The devices are fabricated using integrated shadow masks. Reversible switching is observed between conducting (ON) and non-conducting (OFF) states in the devices. The open design of our devices easily permits chemical modification of the polyelectrolyte, which we show has a pronounced effect on the ON–OFF switching. We suggest that the switching voltage ionizes the polymers, creating a conducting channel of electronic levels aligned with the contact Fermi level.

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Figure 1: Device fabrication.
Figure 2: Memory effect in polymer brush devices.
Figure 3: Distinct transport properties are observed in the high-conductance ‘ON’ state.
Figure 4: Effect of chemical modifications on the switching voltage.
Figure 5: Examples of irreversible brush modifications.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to acknowledge discussions with E. Chandross, J. Aizenberg, A. White and V. Zhirnov. A.S. was supported by the Office of Naval Research, Award N00014-05-1-0909.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Bell Labs, Alcatel-Lucent, 600 Mountain Avenue, Murray Hill, 07974, New Jersey, USA

    N. B. Zhitenev, A. Sidorenko, D. M. Tennant & R. A. Cirelli

Authors
  1. N. B. Zhitenev
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  2. A. Sidorenko
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  3. D. M. Tennant
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  4. R. A. Cirelli
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Contributions

N.Z. and A.S. conceived and performed the experiments, D.T. and R.C. designed and fabricated the integrated masks.

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Correspondence to N. B. Zhitenev.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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Supplementary figures S1—S6 (PDF 788 kb)

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Zhitenev, N., Sidorenko, A., Tennant, D. et al. Chemical modification of the electronic conducting states in polymer nanodevices. Nature Nanotech 2, 237–242 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1038/nnano.2007.75

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