Trapping of electrons in metal oxide-polymer memory diodes in the initial stage of electroforming

Metal oxide-polymer diodes require electroforming before they act as nonvolatile resistive switching memory diodes. Here we investigate the early stages of the electroforming process in Al/Al2O3/poly(spirofluorene)/Ba/Al diodes using quasistatic capacitance-voltage measurements. In the initial stage, electrons are injected into the polymer and then deeply trapped near the poly(spirofluorene)-Al2O3 interface. For bias voltages below 6 V, the number of trapped electrons is found to be CoxideV/q with Coxide as the geometrical capacitance of the oxide layer. This implies a density of traps for the electrons at the polymer-metal oxide interface larger than 3×1017 m-2