Use the disorder instead of fighting it – to make fully light-driven synaptic devices.
Stacks of 2D materials, also known as van der Waals heterojunctions, can form highly effective optoelectronic devices. One of the very promising applications for such devices is neuromorphic computing, which aims to achieve rapid and efficient computation by mimicking the way human brains work.
A recent work from Prof Tagliabue and her colleagues at EPFL shows a new type of synaptic devices based on graphene/WSe2 stacks. The researchers leveraged locally trapped photogenerated charges to modulate the device conductivity with light, resulting in ultra-low power consumption. In particular, the team discovered that, with the right material combination, switching between positive and negative photoconductance by simply modulating the incident light power is possible, with vanishingly small electrical power consumption. These devices can serve as building blocks for fully light-modulated neuromorphic devices.
Imina Technologies’ motorized probe-station was used as a part of the optoelectronic characterization setup inside a black box. Our probers were used to contact the 2D stacks and extract the electrical signal generated by the light.
“Working with Imina greatly accelerated the pace of our research by enabling us to easily contact and test a multitude of 2D material devices despite their irregular positioning and varying sizes. Also, Imina probes allow contacting delicate samples with ease thanks to full control on approach speed and force of the probes.” – Says Prof. Guilia Tagliabue, the study’s PI.
“The Imina system is efficient and stable for optoelectric characteristic tests of Van der Waals heterojunction devices, and is of great help for exploring the application of devices in optoelectric detection and neuromorphic computing."” – adds Dr. Hongyu Tang, who performed the experiments.
Optoelectronic characterization of 2D materials devices
Photovoltaic characterization of PV solar cells
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