Giant ferroelectric resistance switching controlled by a modulatory terminal for low-power neuromorphic in-memory computing

Ferroelectrics have been demonstrated as excellent building blocks for high-performance non-volatile memories, including memristors, which play critical roles in the hardware implementation of artificial synapses and in-memory computing. Here, we report that the emerging van der Waals ferroelectric α-In2Se3 can be used to successfully implement heterosynaptic plasticity (a fundamental but rarely emulated synaptic form) using a planar-six-terminal memristor architecture. Through pulse programming at a modulatory terminal, the resistance (or current) switching between two floating electrodes shows a ratio of >103, which is two orders of magnitude larger than that in other reported multiterminal memristors. The polarization change of the ferroelectric α-In2Se3 channel is responsible for the resistance switching at various paired terminals. Considering the device variation, the image recognition accuracy of the simulated neural network, AlexNet, can reach 98%. Moreover, these heterosynaptic devices can naturally realize non-volatile Boolean logic without an additional circuit component. Our results suggest that van der Waals ferroelectrics hold great potential for applications in complex brain-inspired computing systems and logic-in-memory computers