Reconfigurable molybdenum ditelluride devices with multiple functions

Over the past several decades, electronics engineers have attempted to develop increasingly small, high-performance field-effect transistors (FETs) with multiple functions. FETs are crucial components of most electronic devices on the market today because they can control the electrical current flowing through the devices.

Scaling down FETs to sizes below 10 nm, however, has proven very difficult. Some studies have thus explored the potential of reconfigurable devices, that is to say devices capable of changing function during their operation, as alternatives to conventional FETs.

Many reconfigurable devices developed in recent years are based on silicon FETs. Although some of these devices have achieved encouraging results, they typically require complex electronic circuits and additional memory units, which significantly limits their large-scale manufacturing and makes them difficult to integrate with other electronic components.

Researchers at Tsinghua University recently developed new non-volatile reconfigurable devices capable of switching between multiple functions, serving as diodes, memories, logic gates and even artificial synapses in neuromorphic computing hardware. These new reconfigurable devices, presented in an article published in Natural electronicsare based on the semiconductor molybdenum ditelluride, thereby overcoming some of the limitations associated with their silicon-based counterparts.

“Two-dimensional semiconductors are promising materials for making non-volatile reconfigurable devices due to their atomic fineness and strong gate control, but it is difficult to create varied reconfigurable functions with simple device configuration,” Yonghuang Wu, Bolun Wang and colleagues. wrote in their diary. “We show that an efficient gate voltage-programmed progressive doping strategy can be used to create a single-gate, two-dimensional molybdenum ditelluride device with multiple reconfigurable functions.”

The team’s reconfigurable devices were developed using a particular doping strategy that ultimately enables their multiple functions. The researchers evaluated their device in a series of tests, also comparing its performance and capabilities to previously developed reconfigurable devices based on 2D materials.

Their results were very promising, showing that the reconfigurability of the device is comparable, in some cases, superior to other designs introduced in previous literature. Additionally, the device was found to achieve remarkable results across all its different functions and could be easier to upgrade than silicon-based alternatives.

“The device can be programmed to function as a switchable polarity diode, memory, in-memory Boolean logic gates, and artificial synapses with homosynaptic plasticity and heterosynaptic plasticity,” Wu, Wang, and colleagues wrote. “As a diode, the device has a rectification ratio of up to 10⁴; as an artificial hetero synapse, it exhibits heterosynaptic metaplasticity with a modulatory energy consumption that can be reduced to 7.3 fW.

In the future, the molybdenum ditelluride device introduced by Wu, Wang and their colleagues could be improved, integrated with other electronic devices, and further evaluated in additional experiments. Additionally, its design could inspire the development of other reconfigurable and multifunctional devices, opening promising research avenues for improving electronics.

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