Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Article
  • Published:

Organic optoelectronic synapse based on photon-modulated electrochemical doping

Nature Photonics volume 17, pages 629–637 (2023)Cite this article

Subjects

Abstract

Optoelectronic synapses can perceive and memorize visual information, making them appealing for future bionic eyes or vision automation. Organic field-effect transistors are a promising platform for optoelectronic synaptic devices thanks to their flexibility and biocompatibility. However, charge screening effects occurring at channel–dielectric interfaces hinder the implementation of programmable multilevel memories. Here, we report photonic organic synapses based on photon-modulated electrochemical doping in electrochemical transistors, where light can manipulate ion insertion into the photoactive layer composed of donor–acceptor heterojunction interfaces. This enables high-density multilevel conductance modulation at low operating voltages (<1 V) and the imitation of ion flux-driven synaptic activity of living systems. The devices can recognize different optical signals and mimic the learning processes of the human brain. By exploiting the integrated functions of perception, processing and memorization of visual information, a single-layer synapse array acts as an artificial retina enabling facial recognition without the use of a complex artificial neural network.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on SpringerLink
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Fig. 1: Bioinspired visual system.
Fig. 2: Photonic non-volatility of the synaptic devices.
Fig. 3: Mimicking STP and LTP using optoelectronic synaptic device.
Fig. 4: Photon-modulated electrochemical doping.
Fig. 5: Image memorization with a prototype-size array and high-density array fabrication.
Fig. 6: Artificial retina for face recognition.

Similar content being viewed by others

Data availability

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the Purdue University Research Repository at https://purr.purdue.edu/publications/4245/1.

Code availability

The code that supports the face recognition and fashion product classification within this paper is available from the corresponding author upon a reasonable request.

References

  1. Jung, Y. H., Park, B., Kim, J. U. & Kim, T. Bioinspired electronics for artificial sensory systems. Adv. Mater. 31, 1803637 (2019).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Woods, G. A., Rommelfanger, N. J. & Hong, G. Bioinspired materials for in vivo bioelectronic neural interfaces. Matter 3, 1087–1113 (2020).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Kim, Y. et al. A bioinspired flexible organic artificial afferent nerve. Science 360, 998–1003 (2018).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  4. Shim, H. et al. Artificial neuromorphic cognitive skins based on distributed biaxially stretchable elastomeric synaptic transistors. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 119, e2204852119 (2022).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Yang, X. et al. Bioinspired neuron-like electronics. Nat. Mater. 18, 510–517 (2019).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  6. van de Burgt, Y. et al. A non-volatile organic electrochemical device as a low-voltage artificial synapse for neuromorphic computing. Nat. Mater. 16, 414–418 (2017).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  7. Shao, L., Zhao, Y. & Liu, Y. Organic synaptic transistors: the evolutionary path from memory cells to the application of artificial neural networks. Adv. Funct. Mater. 31, 2101951 (2021).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Lee, W. W. et al. A neuro-inspired artificial peripheral nervous system for scalable electronic skins. Sci. Robot. 4, eaax2198 (2019).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Li, P., Anwar Ali, H. P., Cheng, W., Yang, J. & Tee, B. C. K. Bioinspired prosthetic interfaces. Adv. Mater. Technol. 5, 1900856 (2020).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Juzekaeva, E. et al. Coupling cortical neurons through electronic memristive synapse. Adv. Mater. Technol. 4, 1800350 (2019).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  11. Heng, W., Solomon, S. & Gao, W. Flexible electronics and devices as human–machine interfaces for medical robotics. Adv. Mater. 34, 2107902 (2022).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. Chortos, A., Liu, J. & Bao, Z. Pursuing prosthetic electronic skin. Nat. Mater. 15, 937–950 (2016).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  13. Someya, T., Bao, Z. & Malliaras, G. G. The rise of plastic bioelectronics. Nature 540, 379–385 (2016).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  14. Spyropoulos, G. D., Gelinas, J. N. & Khodagholy, D. Internal ion-gated organic electrochemical transistor: a building block for integrated bioelectronics. Sci. Adv. 5, eaau7378 (2019).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  15. Jastrzebska-Perfect, P. et al. Mixed-conducting particulate composites for soft electronics. Sci. Adv. 6, eaaz6767 (2020).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  16. Khodagholy, D. et al. Organic electronics for high-resolution electrocorticography of the human brain. Sci. Adv. 2, e1601027 (2016).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  17. Zhang, J., Dai, S., Zhao, Y., Zhang, J. & Huang, J. Recent progress in photonic synapses for neuromorphic systems. Adv. Intell. Syst. 2, 1900136 (2020).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  18. Girtan, M. Is photonics the new electronics? Mater. Today 17, 100–101 (2014).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  19. Hong, S. et al. Neuromorphic active pixel image sensor array for visual memory. ACS Nano 15, 15362–15370 (2021).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  20. Zhou, F. et al. Optoelectronic resistive random access memory for neuromorphic vision sensors. Nat. Nanotechnol. 14, 776–782 (2019).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  21. Ham, S., Choi, S., Cho, H., Na, S.-I. & Wang, G. Photonic organolead halide perovskite artificial synapse capable of accelerated learning at low power inspired by dopamine-facilitated synaptic activity. Adv. Funct. Mater. 29, 1806646 (2019).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  22. Lv, Z. et al. Mimicking neuroplasticity in a hybrid biopolymer transistor by dual modes modulation. Adv. Funct. Mater. 29, 1902374 (2019).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  23. Wang, H. et al. A ferroelectric/electrochemical modulated organic synapse for ultraflexible, artificial visual-perception system. Adv. Mater. 30, 1803961 (2018).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  24. Wang, S. et al. A MoS 2 /PTCDA hybrid heterojunction synapse with efficient photoelectric dual modulation and versatility. Adv. Mater. 31, 1806227 (2019).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  25. Dai, S. et al. Light-stimulated synaptic devices utilizing interfacial effect of organic field-effect transistors. ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces 10, 21472–21480 (2018).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  26. Wang, K. et al. Light‐stimulated synaptic transistors fabricated by a facile solution process based on inorganic perovskite quantum dots and organic semiconductors. Small 15, 1900010 (2019).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  27. Qian, C. et al. Solar-stimulated optoelectronic synapse based on organic heterojunction with linearly potentiated synaptic weight for neuromorphic computing. Nano Energy 66, 104095 (2019).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  28. Zhang, Q. et al. Organic field effect transistor‐based photonic synapses: materials, devices, and applications. Adv. Funct. Mater. 31, 2106151 (2021).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  29. Deng, Z. et al. Recent progresses of organic photonic synaptic transistors. Flex. Print. Electron. 7, 024002 (2022).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  30. Gong, X. et al. High-detectivity polymer photodetectors with spectral response from 300 nm to 1450 nm. Science 325, 1665–1667 (2009).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  31. Yang, X. et al. Nanoscale morphology of high-performance polymer solar cells. Nano Lett. 5, 579–583 (2005).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  32. Zucker, R. S. & Regehr, W. G. Short-term synaptic plasticity. Annu. Rev. Physiol. 64, 355–405 (2002).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  33. Yang, J. et al. Photo-induced ultrafast active ion transport through graphene oxide membranes. Nat. Commun. 10, 1171 (2019).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  34. Xiao, K. et al. Artificial light-driven ion pump for photoelectric energy conversion. Nat. Commun. 10, 74 (2019).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  35. Guo, J., Ohkita, H., Benten, H. & Ito, S. Near-IR femtosecond transient absorption spectroscopy of ultrafast polaron and triplet exciton formation in polythiophene films with different regioregularities. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 131, 16869–16880 (2009).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  36. Guo, J., Ohkita, H., Benten, H. & Ito, S. Charge generation and recombination dynamics in poly(3-hexylthiophene)/fullerene blend films with different regioregularities and morphologies. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 132, 6154–6164 (2010).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  37. Samaria, F. S. & Harter, A. C. Parameterisation of a stochastic model for human face identification. In Proc. IEEE Workshop Appl. Comput. Vis. 138–142 (IEEE, 1994).

Download references

Acknowledgements

This work is supported by Ambilight Inc under contract no. 4000187.02 (K.C., J.M., I.S., W.L., A.A). Work at the University of Texas at San Antonio was supported by the Welch Foundation through the Welch Chair under grant no. AX-0045-20110629 (H.G., K.S). H.H. contributed to simulation for facial and object recognition with no funding support. In addition, the authors are grateful to L. Pan and Q. Qian for their valuable contributions and insights in photolithography printing.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemistry, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, USA

    Ke Chen, Hang Hu, Inho Song, Won-June Lee, Ashkan Abtahi & Jianguo Mei

  2. Department of Chemistry, University of Texas at San Antonio, San Antonio, TX, USA

    Habtom B. Gobeze & Kirk S. Schanze

Authors
  1. Ke Chen
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Hang Hu
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Inho Song
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Habtom B. Gobeze
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Won-June Lee
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. Ashkan Abtahi
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  7. Kirk S. Schanze
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  8. Jianguo Mei
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Contributions

K.C. and J.M. conceived the idea and designed the experiments. K.C. performed the experiments and characterization. H.H. performed simulation for facial and object recognition. I.S. performed microelectrode patterning. H.G. and K.S. performed transient spectroscopy measurements. W.L. and A.A. provided comments during the experiments and revision. K.C. and J.M. drafted the manuscript and all authors contributed towards writing the paper.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jianguo Mei.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

J.M. is a cofounder of Ambilight Inc., which sponsors this work. A patent disclosure was filed by Purdue University. The remaining authors declare no competing interests.

Peer review

Peer review information

Nature Photonics thanks the anonymous reviewers for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

Additional information

Publisher’s note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Supplementary information

Supplementary Information

Supplementary Discussion, Figs. 1–31, Tables 1 and 2 and References.

Supplementary Video

Device response to hand wave in ambient lighting condition.

Rights and permissions

Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Chen, K., Hu, H., Song, I. et al. Organic optoelectronic synapse based on photon-modulated electrochemical doping. Nat. Photon. 17, 629–637 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41566-023-01232-x

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41566-023-01232-x

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing