Advances in Materials Physics and Chemistry, 2013, 3, 299-306 Published Online November 2013 (http://www.scirp.org/journal/ampc) http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/ampc.2013.37041 Open Access AMPC Effect of Switching on Metal-Organic Interface Adhesion Relevant to Organic Electronic Devices Babaniyi Babatope 1* , Akogwu Onobu 2 , Olusegun O. Adewoye 3 , Winston O. Soboyejo 2,3 1 Department of Physics, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria 2 Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Princeton University, Princeton, USA 3 Materials Science and Engineering Department, African University of Science and Technology, Abuja, Nigeria Email: * niyibabatope@gmail.com Received September 4, 2013; revised October 8, 2013; accepted October 16, 2013 Copyright © 2013 Babaniyi Babatope et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution Li- cense, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. ABSTRACT Considerable efforts are currently being devoted to investigation of metal-organic, organic-organic and organic-inor- ganic interfaces relevant to organic electronic devices such as organic light emitting diode (OLEDs), organic photo- voltaic solar cells, organic field effect transistors (OFETs), organic spintronic devices and organic-based Write Once Read Many times (WORM) memory devices on both rigid and flexible substrates in laboratories around the world. The multilayer structure of these devices makes interfaces between dissimilar materials in contact and plays a prominent role in charge transport and injection efficiency which inevitably affect device performance. This paper presents results of an initial study on how switching between voltage thresholds and chemical surface treatment affects adhesion prop- erties of a metal-organic (Au-PEDOT:PSS) contact interface in a WORM device. Contact and Tapping-mode Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) gave surface topography, phase imaging and interface adhesion properties in addition to SEM/EDX imaging which showed that surface treatment, switching and surface roughness all appeared to be key fac- tors in increasing interface adhesion with implications for increased device performance. Keywords: AFM; Interface; Adhesion Force; Organic Electronics; Voltage Switching; Organic Memory Devices; Surface Treatment 1. Introduction The investigation of interfaces between dissimilar or- ganic-metal, organic-organic and organic-inorganic ma- terials which are inherent in the devices made from them has been intensified in recent times. The interface phe- nomena are thus crucial towards the development, under- standing and improvement of organic-based semicon- ductor electronic device [1-14] applications such as or- ganic light emitting devices (OLEDs) [15-18], organic photovoltaic devices [19-21], organic thin film transistor devices [22-27] and organic spin electronic devices in which the transport and control of spin polarized infor- mation are represented [28-30]. The interface between the different materials that make them up determines the charge transport and charge injection efficiency, with implications for the performance of the devices. Interfacial phenomena are particularly crucial towards the development and improvement of applications of these devices and in order to effectively investigate mul- tilayer structured devices, the overall flexibility becomes very critical. This, in addition to their molecular nature, makes the study of organic thin films interfaces to be more intensified compared to inorganic semiconductors. The type of interaction at the interface is either physi- cal or chemical and progress in organic electronics re- quires their detail understanding [31]. Investigations of the chemical nature of interfaces are common in thin film characterization, but not much attention has been directed at measuring physical interaction until recently when advanced characterization tools are becoming more widely available. However, in a work reported on the nanoscale adhesion between organic-organic, organic-inorganic, and inorganic-inorganic thin film interfaces [32], the AFM technique was used in quantifying the interfaces, though with some limitations. The pull-off forces and surface parameters were measured and incorporated into theo- * Corresponding author.