Lead-free perovskites-based photonic synaptic devices with zero electric energy consumption

The von Neumann bottleneck is a critical limitation in synaptic devices. Therefore, artificial synaptic devices resembling biological neuromorphic synapses have been developed to overcome the von Neumann bottleneck. However, synaptic devices require voltages, which results in considerable energy consumption. Here, photonic synaptic devices with the vertical structure of indium tin oxide (ITO)/SnO₂/Al₂O₃/CsBi₃I₁₀/Au are fabricated, which can work in the self-powered mode owing to the photovoltaic effect endowed by a vertical multilayer structure. Several fundamental synaptic functions, such as excitatory postsynaptic current, paired-pulse facilitation, short-term plasticity (STP), long-term plasticity (LTP), pulse-frequency-dependent plasticity, transition of STP to LTP, and the learning experience are emulated. Moreover, Morse-coded external light information is decoded by self-powered photonic synaptic devices. The results indicate that self-powered photonic synaptic devices based on lead-free perovskites exhibit great potential for efficient neuromorphic computing and optical wireless communication.