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Exploring new type of synapse–like electronic devices with fusion of computing and memory is a promising strategy to fundamentally approach to intelligent machines. Herein, organic thin film memristors (OTFMs) are achieved, functioning as electrically programmable and erasable analog memory with continuous and nonvolatile device states. The memristive characteristics of OTFMs stem from the asymmetric electrode configuration and the cumulative charge trapping/detrapping in a polymer electret layer, which enables the state–dependent current modulation analogous to the synaptic weight change in biological synapses. OTFMs are demonstrated to successfully emulate the essential synaptic functions, including the reversible potentiation and depression, and the short‐term plasticity such as the paired‐pulse facilitation and the long‐term plasticity such as the spike–timing dependent plasticity.

Work function is a fundamental property of a material's surface. It is playing an ever more important role in engineering new energy materials and efficient energy devices, especially in the field of photovoltaic devices, catalysis, semiconductor heterojunctions, nanotechnology, and electrochemistry. Using ambient pressure X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (APXPS), we have measured the binding energies of core level photoelectrons of Ar gas in the vicinity of several reference materials with known work functions (Au(111), Pt(111), graphite) and PbS nanoparticles. We demonstrate an unambiguously negative correlation between the work functions of reference samples and the binding energies of Ar 2p core level photoelectrons detected from the Ar gas near the sample surface region. Using this experimentally determined linear relationship between the surface work function and Ar gas core level photoelectron binding energy, we can measure the surface work function of different materials under different gas environments. To demonstrate the potential applications of this ambient pressure XPS technique in nanotechnology and solar energy research, we investigate the work functions of PbS nanoparticles with various capping ligands: methoxide, mercaptopropionic acid, and ethanedithiol. Significant Fermi level position changes are observed for PbS nanoparticles when the nanoparticle size and capping ligands are varied. The corresponding changes in the valence band maximum illustrate that an efficient quantum dot solar cell design has to take into account the electrochemical effect of the capping ligand as well.

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Contact-metal dependent current injection in top-contact pentacene thin-film transistors is analyzed, and the local mobility in the contact region was found to follow the Meyer-Neldel rule. An exponential trap distribution, rather than the metal/organic hole injection barrier, is proposed to be the dominant factor of the contact resistance in pentacene thin-film transistors. The variable temperature measurements revealed a much narrower trap distribution in the copper contact compared with the corresponding gold contact, and this is the origin of the smaller contact resistance for copper despite a lower work function.