Optically Tunable Electrical Oscillations in Oxide-Based Memristors for Neuromorphic Computing

Shimul Kanti Nath; Sujan Kumar Das; Sanjoy Kumar Nandi; Chen Xi; Camilo Verbel Marquez; Armando Rúa; Mutsunori Uenuma; Zhongrui Wang; Songqing Zhang; Rui-Jie Zhu; Jason Eshraghian; Xiao Sun; Teng Lu; Yue Bian; Nitu Syed; Wenwu Pan; Han Wang; Wen Lei; Lan Fu; Lorenzo Faraone; Yun Liu; Robert G Elliman

doi:10.1002/adma.202400904

Optically Tunable Electrical Oscillations in Oxide-Based Memristors for Neuromorphic Computing

Adv Mater. 2024 Mar 22:e2400904. doi: 10.1002/adma.202400904. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Shimul Kanti Nath^{1

2

3}, Sujan Kumar Das^{2

4}, Sanjoy Kumar Nandi², Chen Xi⁵, Camilo Verbel Marquez⁶, Armando Rúa⁶, Mutsunori Uenuma⁷, Zhongrui Wang⁵, Songqing Zhang¹, Rui-Jie Zhu⁸, Jason Eshraghian⁸, Xiao Sun⁹, Teng Lu¹⁰, Yue Bian^{2

11}, Nitu Syed¹², Wenwu Pan^{1

13}, Han Wang¹, Wen Lei¹, Lan Fu^{2

11}, Lorenzo Faraone^{1

13}, Yun Liu¹⁰, Robert G Elliman²

Affiliations

¹ Department of Electrical, Electronic and Computer Engineering, The University of Western Australia, 35 Stirling Highway, Perth, WA, 6009, Australia.
² Department of Electronic Materials Engineering, Research School of Physics, The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT, 2601, Australia.
³ School of Photovoltaic and Renewable Energy Engineering, University of New South Wales (UNSW Sydney), Kensington, NSW, 2052, Australia.
⁴ Department of Physics, Jahangirnagar Univeristy, Savar, Dhaka, 1342, Bangladesh.
⁵ Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, the University of Hong Kong, Pok Fu Lam Rd, Hong Kong Island, Hong Kong.
⁶ Department of Physics, University of Puerto Rico, Mayaguez, PR, 00681, USA.
⁷ Information Device Science Laboratory, Nara Institute of Science and Technology (NAIST), Nara, 630-0192, Japan.
⁸ Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of California, Santa Cruz, CA, 95064, USA.
⁹ John de Laeter Centre, Curtin University, Perth, WA, 6102, Australia.
¹⁰ Research School of Chemistry, The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT, 2601, Australia.
¹¹ Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Transformative Meta-Optical Systems, Canberra, ACT, 2601, Australia.
¹² Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Transformative Meta-Optical Systems, School of Physics, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria, 3010, Australia.
¹³ Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Transformative Meta-Optical Systems, Perth, WA, 6009, Australia.

PMID: 38516720
DOI: 10.1002/adma.202400904

Abstract

The application of hardware-based neural networks can be enhanced by integrating sensory neurons and synapses that enable direct input from external stimuli. This work reports direct optical control of an oscillatory neuron based on volatile threshold switching in V₃O₅. The devices exhibit electroforming-free operation with switching parameters that can be tuned by optical illumination. Using temperature-dependent electrical measurements, conductive atomic force microscopy (C-AFM), in situ thermal imaging, and lumped element modelling, it is shown that the changes in switching parameters, including threshold and hold voltages, arise from overall conductivity increase of the oxide film due to the contribution of both photoconductive and bolometric characteristics of V₃O₅, which eventually affects the oscillation dynamics. Furthermore, V₃O₅ is identified as a new bolometric material with a temperature coefficient of resistance (TCR) as high as -4.6% K^-1 at 423 K. The utility of these devices is illustrated by demonstrating in-sensor reservoir computing with reduced computational effort and an optical encoding layer for spiking neural network (SNN), respectively, using a simulated array of devices.

Keywords: V3O5; bolometric material; negative differential resistance; neuromorphic computing; oscillation neuron; photomemristor; reservoir computing; threshold switching; vanadium oxide.

Abstract

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