Rational Design of Redox-active Organometallic Polymers for Nonvolatile Memory Device Application

This project is concerned with the design of redox-active organometallic polymer for computer memory building blocks. Materials in which the resistance can be reversibly switched between a high-resistance state and a low-resistance state are known as resistance switching materials, and they are promising building blocks for computer nonvolatile memory, i.e. computer memory that does not need power to maintain the information stored. Although a number of different organic systems have been explored for the use of nonvolatile memories, the researchers envision that well-designed redox-active organometallic polymers will not only possess resistive switching behavior, but may also feature better memory device performance including high on-off ratio, low driving voltage, and better write-read-erase-read cycling endurance. However, rational design of carbon-rich transition-metal complexes for electronic memory elements is sparse. In this project, the researchers aim to design redox-active organometallic polymers which possess resistive switching behavior using ruthenium/osmium acetylide, carbene and cumulene complexes as motifs, and then investigate their potential for nonvolatile memory device application. The researchers believe that detailed investigation on the correlation between the resistive switching behavior and the structures of the redox-active organometallic building blocks can provide insight on designing new materials for flash memory.