Room-temperature valley transistors for low-power neuromorphic computing

Nat Commun. 2022 Dec 15;13(1):7758. doi: 10.1038/s41467-022-35396-x.

Abstract

Valley pseudospin is an electronic degree of freedom that promises highly efficient information processing applications. However, valley-polarized excitons usually have short pico-second lifetimes, which limits the room-temperature applicability of valleytronic devices. Here, we demonstrate room-temperature valley transistors that operate by generating free carrier valley polarization with a long lifetime. This is achieved by electrostatic manipulation of the non-trivial band topology of the Weyl semiconductor tellurium (Te). We observe valley-polarized diffusion lengths of more than 7 μm and fabricate valley transistors with an ON/OFF ratio of 105 at room temperature. Moreover, we demonstrate an ion insertion/extraction device structure that enables 32 non-volatile memory states with high linearity and symmetry in the Te valley transistor. With ultralow power consumption (~fW valley contribution), we enable the inferring process of artificial neural networks, exhibiting potential for applications in low-power neuromorphic computing.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Cognition*
  • Diffusion
  • Electronics
  • Environment*
  • Tellurium
  • Temperature

Substances

  • Tellurium