Polyelectrolyte Bilayer-Based Transparent and Flexible Memristor for Emulating Synapses

Memristors will be critical components in the next generation of digital technology and artificial synapses. Researchers are investigating innovative mechanistic understanding of the memristor devices based on low-cost, solution-processable, and organic materials as promising candidates. Here, we demonstrate a novel polyelectrolyte-based memristor device, which is simply prepared by spin-coating poly(acrylic acid) (PAA) and polyethylenimine (PEI) on an indium tin oxide (ITO) substrate followed by a magnetron sputtering of the ITO as the top electrode. The device has a potential to achieve excellent resistive switching (RS) performance and synapse functionality as well as greater flexibility and transmittance when compared to the oxide-based memories. An on/off resistance ratio of 50 can be maintained without degradation for up to 20 000 cycles (flat state) and over 4000 cycles (bending to a 2 mm radius 10 000 times) in the DC sweep mode. Moreover, the device performs various synaptic functions, including spike-timing-dependent plasticity, pulse pair plasticity, and short-term and long-term plasticity in the potentiation and depression processes. The counterions and two oppositely charged polyelectrolyte chains can move in and out of each other depending on the applied electrical potential (pulse), resulting in a change in the potential drop at the interface of the polyelectrolyte bilayer and its electrodes, which can be attributed to the RS mechanism and various synaptic functions. This insight may accelerate the technological deployment of the organic resistive memories.