NETANYA, Israel — Researchers at Israel's Weizmann Institute are developing an efficient "all-organic" low-voltage device.

The researchers, headed by Professor Milko Van Der Boom, are working on the design, synthesis, and electrochemical switching of optical properties of molecular thin films for optoelectronics.

Prof. Van Der Boom estimates that the design of the films he and his team are working on offers unprecedented electrochemical control of thin film optical response properties.

"Fully reversible optical responses occur with variation of the metal oxidation state," according to Van der Boom. "The films are stable in both oxidation states. The low-voltage operation of 1.5 V necessary to trigger the charge storage and the optical responses in combination with the high stability may make this system an ideal candidate for the formation non-volatile memory devices. The same system can be used for optical and electronic detection of various compounds, including water."

According to Van Der Boom, the patent-pending invention will have application in optical communications, electronic switching, sensors, and flash memory devices.

Other potential applications include electronic ink, memory elements (rewritable memory, read-only-memory and write-once-read-many memory), displays, gas sensors, detection of ppm levels of water in organic solvents, spectral filters and light modulators.