Laser Fabrication of Polymer Ferroelectric Nanostructures for Nonvolatile Organic Memory Devices

8 pags.; 5 figs.© 2015 American Chemical Society. Polymer ferroelectric laser-induced periodic surface structures (LIPSS) have been prepared on ferroelectric thin films of a poly(vinylidene fluoride-trifluoroethylene) copolymer. Although this copolymer does not absorb light at the laser wavelength, LIPSS on the copolymer can be obtained by forming a bilayer with other light-absorbing polymers. The ferroelectric nature of the structured bilayer was proven by piezoresponse force microscopy measurements. Ferroelectric hysteresis was found on both the bilayer and the laser-structured bilayer. We show that it is possible to write ferroelectric information at the nanoscale. The laser-structured ferroelectric bilayer showed an increase in the information storage density of an order of magnitude, in comparison to the original bilayer.The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support of the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (MINECO), through Contract Nos. MAT 2011-23455, MAT 2012- 33517, and CTQ 2013-43086-P. D.E.M. thanks CSIC for the tenure of JAE-Pre fellowship and Fondo Social Europeo (FSE) for cofinancing the JAE Program. A.R.R. and E.R. thank MINECO for the tenure of a FPI contract (BES-2013-062620) and a Ramón y Cajal contract (No. RYC-2011-08069), respectively.Peer Reviewe