Electrical bistability is a phenomenon in which a device exhibits two states of different
conductivities, at the same applied voltage. We report an organic electrical bistable device ~OBD!
comprising of a thin metal layer embedded within the organic material, as the active medium @L. P.
Ma, J. Liu, and Y. Yang, US Patent Pending, ~2001!#. The performance of this device makes it
attractive for memory-cell type of applications. The two states of the OBD differ in their
conductivity by several orders in magnitude and show remarkable stability, i.e., once the device
reaches either state, it tends to remain in that state for a prolonged period of time. More importantly,
the high and low conductivity states of an OBD can be precisely controlled by the application of a
positive voltage pulse ~to write! or a negative voltage pulse ~to erase!, respectively. One million
writing-erasing cycles for the OBD have been tested in ambient conditions without significant
device degradation. These discoveries pave the way for newer applications, such as low-cost,
large-area, flexible, high-density, electrically addressable data storage devices.