Amorphous In–Al–Sn–O Thin Film Transistors and Their Application in Optoelectronic Artificial Synapses

Abstract

In‐Al‐Sn‐O (IATO) is a very promising novel amorphous oxide as the active layer of thin film transistors (TFTs). Herein, IATO TFTs are first fabricated with the effects of annealing on IATO films and TFTs being studied. The IATO films possessed amorphous structure, flat surface morphology, high visible light transmittance, and wide optical bandgap ≈4.20 eV before and after annealing even at 400 °C. The minimal surface roughness and internal defects are obtained for the 300 °C annealed IATO film. Correspondingly, the 300 °C annealed TFTs demonstrated the best overall performance including high saturation mobility (8.55 ± 0.62 cm2 V−1 s−1), low subthreshold swing (0.40 ± 0.07 V dec−1), ideal on/off current ratio (1.25 ± 0.09 × 108), and negligible hysteresis (0.23 ± 0.03 V) values. The 300 °C annealed TFTs are then applied in optoelectronic artificial synapses and exhibit typical synaptic properties, including excitatory postsynaptic current, paired‐pulse facilitation, and short‐term plasticity to long‐term plasticity conversion in response to light stimulation. The international Morse code and repetitive learning‐forgetting behavior of the human brain are also successfully simulated. In particular, an emotion‐memory efficiency model is proposed and the emotion effect on human memory efficiency is successfully imitated via the regulation of gate voltage.