Atomic Lego for Future Computing

Van der Waals (vdW) heterostructures, also known as "atomic Lego," are created by stacking different 2D materials, offering unprecedented opportunities to engineer atomic structures with diverse physics and functionalities beyond traditional materials. In this talk, I will demonstrate how these Lego-like structures open new avenues for exploring fundamental physics and developing practical applications in future computing. Specifically, I will showcase several atomic Lego-based neuromorphic computing devices, such as robust memristors utilizing a graphene/MoS_2–xO_x/graphene vdW heterostructure [1], as well as 2D moiré synaptic transistors and ferroelectric topological devices based on graphene/hBN heterostructures [2-3]. Furthermore, I will discuss the applications of atomic Lego in retinomorphic computing, including a reconfigurable neural network vision sensor [4] and a visual perceptron [5], as well as broadband convolutional processing directly within sensors [6]. Additionally, I will highlight our work on using atomic Lego structures to construct a simple solid-state quantum simulator for the extended Hubbard model [7]. Finally, I will explore novel computing paradigms enabled by these devices [8-10] and provide insights into the future prospects of atomic Lego-based computing.

References:

[1] Miao Wang, et. al., Nature Electronics 1, 130 (2018).
[2] Pengfei Wang, et. al., Chinese Physics Letters 40, 117201 (2023)
[3] Moyu Chen, et al., Nature Nanotechnology (2024), in press.
[4] Chen-Yu Wang, et. al., Science Advances 6, eaba6173 (2020).
[5] Xuan Pan, et al., Science Advances 9, eadi4083 (2023).
[6] Lejing Pi, et al., Nature Electronics 5, 248 (2022).
[7] Qiao Li, et. al., Nature 609, 479 (2022).
[8] Cong Wang, et al., Nature Nanotechnology 16, 1079 (2021).
[9] Cong Wang, et al., Nature Electronics 6, 381 (2023).
[10] Yuekun Yang, et al., Nature Electronics 7, 225 (2024).