We report on observation of a light-induced switching of the conductance in the back-gated organic field-effect transistors (OFETs) with built-in conduction channel. In the studied devices, the built-in channel is formed owing to the self-sensitized photo-oxidation of rubrene surface. In the dark, the back gate controls the charge injection from metal contacts into the built-in channel: the high-current ON state corresponds to zero or negative back-gate voltage; the low-current OFF state -to a positive back-gate voltage that blocks the Schottky contacts. Illumination of the OFET in the OFF state with a short pulse of light switches the device into the ON state that persists in the dark for days. The OFF state can be restored by cycling the back gate voltage. The observed effect can be explained by screening of the back-gate electric field by the charges photo-generated in the bulk of organic semiconductor.* Electronic mail: podzorov@physics.rutgers.eduThe organic field effect transistors (OFETs) represent one of the key components in the organic electronics [1]. For many applications, the control of transistor operation with light would be desirable. However, until recently, the light-induced effects in OFETs were limited to observation of a photoconductivity response (see, e.g., [2]). One of the problems that hinder the study of the photo-induced processes in conventional thin-film transistors is a large concentration of structural defects in organic thin films that trap light-generated carriers and act as the recombination centers. Fabrication of the single-crystal OFETs [3,4,5,6,7], in which concentration of defects is significantly reduced, opens new opportunities for studies of light-induced effects in organic semiconductor devices.In this paper, we report on a novel light-induced effect in organic transistors: under illumination by a short pulse of light, the transistor switches from the low-current OFF state into the high-current ON state, which persists in the dark for days. This effect might be potentially interesting for light sensors and light-addressable memory applications.We observed this effect in an unconventional backgated OFET with a built-in conduction channel. The sketch of the back-gated OFET based on a single crystal of rubrene is shown in Fig. 1a. The OFETs have been fabricated using the parylene gate-dielectric technique that we used for fabrication of high-mobility OFETs based on free-standing organic molecular crystals [3]. The single crystals of rubrene have been grown from the vapor phase in a stream of ultra-pure hydrogen in a horizontal reactor [8]. Typically, thin flat crystals with dimensions of 1-3 mm in the (a,b) basal plane and 0.1-0.2 mm along the c-axis were used. The source/drain contacts and the gate electrode were formed on the opposite (a,b)-facets of the crystal, either by thermal evaporation of silver through a shadow mask or by painting with the colloidal graphite. These contacts are efficient injectors of p-type carriers in rubrene [3]. The injected carriers propagate...