Solution-Processed Submicron-Channel Organic Ferroelectric Memristors with a Low Operation Voltage of 1 V

In contrast to traditional von Neumann electronic systems, which suffer from inherent data transmission and energy efficiency bottlenecks, memristors have been proposed to meet the demand of fast-growing neuromorphic computing for low-power, high-integration, scalable devices. Great progress has been achieved in inorganic memristors and their chips. On the contrary, organic memristors, featuring flexibility, biocompatibility, and facile fabrication, still face bottlenecks in miniaturization and arrayed fabrication due to lithography incompatibility. Herein, we report a submicron-channel organic memristor with a heterojunction of molecular ferroelectric diisopropylammonium bromide (DIPAB) and semiconductor copper(II) phthalocyanine (CuPc), fabricated by combining all-solution functional layer processing with nanoimprint lithography (NIL). The conductivity and photoresponsivity of the lateral interface of the heterojunction can be modulated by the in-plane ferroelectric polarization of DIPAB. By optimizing CuPc annealing in the NIL-patterned submicron channel, low-voltage operation of ≤1 V was achieved, with electrical/optoelectronic bimodal synaptic characteristics including discrete quasi-linear multi-level conductance modulation and self-driven photoresponsivity tuning. Based on their physical properties, high accuracy of image recognition simulations was then achieved with simple network architectures. This may provide a feasible low-cost route for large-scale fabrication of miniaturized organic memristors with lateral conduction channels for low-power neuromorphic computing applications.