Bias-induced insulator-metal transition in organic electronics

The authors investigate the bias-induced insulator-metal transition in organic electronics devices on the basis of the Su-Schrieffer-Heeger model [W. P. Su et al., Phys. Rev. B 22, 2099 (1980)] combined with the nonequilibrium Green’s function formalism. The insulator-metal transition is explained with the energy level crossover that eliminates the Peierls phase [R. Peierls, Quantum Theory of Solids (Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1955)] and delocalizes the electron states near the threshold voltage. This may account for the experimental observations on the devices that exhibit intrinsic bistable conductance switching with large on-off ratio.