Fusion of Solid-State Ionics and Electronics to Advance Neuromorphic Technology

For the further development of today's information society, hardware-oriented artificial intelligence (AI) systems, such as terminal equipment and brain computers that operate with low power consumption and small size, are expected to be developed. To realize such software-independent AI hardware, devices that realize various functions and performances, such as memristive and neuromorphic characteristics, are required. To this end, it is important to actively develop not only conventional semiconductor devices with properties suitable for digital arithmetic processing, but also new-concept devices operating on different principles. One of these is a new group of devices developed by fusing solid-state ionics and electronics. These devices operate by controlling the transport of ions and vacancies as well as electrons and holes in solids. Consequently, the transport of ions (vacancies) and the associated electrochemical phenomena can be used to control the local composition of device materials and even reconstructing the hetero-interface structure at will. In other words, it is the device nanoarchitectonics that is achieved by controlling ion transport. (named ionic nanoarchitectonics)^[1]. This ionic nanoarchitectonics enables the control of various physical properties of device materials, and this control can create interesting devices with new functions and performance not found in conventional semiconductor devices. To date, we have. have created many devices with diverse functions using ionic nanoarchitectonics^[1-4]. These devices include atomic switches, decision-making devices, artificial synaptic devices ^[5], solid-state electrical double-layer transistors, artificial vision^[6], physical reservoir devices^[7] and so on. Ion nano-architectonics, based on the fusion of solid-state ionics and electronics, is a promising method to enhance neuromorphic technology.<br/><br/>Reference<br/>[1] K. Terabe et al. <i>Nanoscale </i><b>148</b>(29), 13873-13879, 2016<br/>[2] K. Terabe et al. <i>Adv. Electron. Mater. </i><b>8</b>(8), 2100645, 2022<br/>[3] K. Terabe et al. Jpn. J. Appl. Phys. <b>61</b>, SM0803, 2022<br/>[4] K. Terabe et al.<i> Adv. Phys. :X, </i><b>7</b>(1), 2065217, 2022<br/>[5] H. N. Mohanty et al.<i> ACS. Appl. Mater. Interfaces </i><b>15</b>(15), 19279-19289 (2023)<br/>[6] X. Wan et al. <i>Nano. Lett.</i><b> 21</b>, 7938-7945 (2021)<br/>[7] T. Nishioka et al. <i>Sci. Adv</i>. <b>8</b>, eade1156 (2022)