Ion Intercalation-Mediated MoS2 Conductance Switching for Highly Energy-Efficient Memristor Synapse

Abstract

Emerging memristor synapses with ion dynamics have the potential to process spatiotemporal information and can accelerate the development of energy-efficient neuromorphic computing. However, conventional ion-migration-type memristors suffer from low switching speed and uncontrollable conductance modulation, hindering energy-efficient neuromorphic hardware implementation. Here, ion intercalation-mediated conductance switching in MoS₂ is introduced for a highly energy-efficient memristor synapse (HEMS) to accurately emulate the bio-synaptic function. Li-ion intercalation into the few-layer MoS₂ can induce structural evolution, thereby achieving high-speed and controllable conductance modulation in HEMS. Consequently, the HEMS exhibits highly energy efficiency with a fast switching speed of 500 ns and low energy consumption of 2.85 fJ per synaptic event. The stable bidirectional modulation of synaptic plasticity by consecutive voltage pulses of 5000 times can be achieved in the HEMS. Besides, the HEMS is endowed with logic functions and can process multiple sets of inputs in parallel for information integration. This work offers an alternative strategy for fast-speed conductance modulation via ion intercalation to develop energy-efficient memristors in future neuromorphic computing.