Fine-Tweaked Quinoxalines: Robust Materials for Binary WORM Memory Devices

The ever-increasing demand for data storage and efficient electronics has driven researchers to explore novel materials beyond traditional silicon-based semiconductors. The distinct structure-dependent properties of small organic molecules made them versatile materials for memory storage applications. Herein, we present quinoxaline-based donor-acceptor (D-A)architected small organic molecules for nonvolatile, write-once, read-many (WORM) resistive-switching memory applications. The molecule of interest, with quinoxaline as the electron acceptor and triphenylamine (TPA) and dibenzofuran as the electron donors, exhibited a significant ON/OFF ratio in the range of 10²-10^5, with the lowest threshold voltage being -0.62 V. The longer retention time of 2000 s and endurance of up to 100 cycles reveal the stability of the fabricated devices. The photo-physical and electro-analytical techniques revealed that the synthesized compounds possessed an ideal band gap of 2.53 to 3.03 eV, which ensures effective charge carrier transfer from HOMO to LUMO levels. These factors, along with thin-film morphological studies, suggest that the compounds are viable as potential resistive memory devices. This study thus demonstrates that the fine-tweaked quinoxalines are potent and versatile small organic molecules for high-density data storage.