Flexible Molecular-Scale Electronic Devices Composed of Diarylethene Photoswitching Molecules

The electrical properties of diarylethene photoswitching molecular devices on flexible substrates are studied. When exposed to UV or visible light, diarylethene molecular devices show two electrical states (a high and a low conductance state) with a discrepancy of an order of magnitude in the level of current between the two states. The diarylethene flexible molecular devices exhibit excellent long-time stability and reliable electrical characteristics in both conductance states when subjected to various mechanical stresses.The authors appreciate the financial support of the National Creative Research Laboratory program (Grant No. 2012026372) and the National Core Research Center program (Grant No. R15-2008-006-03002-0) through the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) funded by the Korean Ministry of Science, ICT & Future Planning. J.W., E. S., and T. H. thank the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft for funding through SFB767