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Research Article

Salt-assisted vapor–liquid–solid growth of high-quality ultrathin nickel oxide flakes for artificial synapses in image recognition applications

Hui Zhang1,2,§, Zongjie Shen2,§, Alei Li2, Lin Wang2, Qinan Wang2, Yunfei Li2, Yunlei Zhong2, Juntong Zhu3, Yong Zhang2, Mengjiao Han4, Dan Tian6, Chun Zhao5( ), Lixing Kang2( ), Qingwen Li1,2( )
School of Physical Science and Technology, Shanghai Tech University, Shanghai 201210, China
Division of Advanced Materials, Suzhou Institute of Nano-Tech and Nano-Bionics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Suzhou 215123, China
College of Energy, Soochow Institute for Energy and Materials Innovations, and Key Laboratory of Advanced Carbon Materials and Wearable Energy Technologies of Jiangsu Province, Soochow University, Suzhou 215123, China
Songshan Lake Materials Laboratory, Dongguan 523808, China
School of Advanced Technology, Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University, Suzhou 215123, China
College of Materials Science and Engineering, Co-Innovation Center of Efficient Processing and Utilization of Forest Resources, Nanjing Forestry University, Nanjing 210037, China

§ Hui Zhang and Zongjie Shen contributed equally to this work.

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Graphical Abstract

This pioneering work not only paves new paths for the synthesis of two-dimensional (2D) oxides in the future but also demonstrates the substantial potential of oxides in the field of neuromorphic computing.

Abstract

Transition metal oxides have attracted intense interest owing to their abundant physical and chemical properties. The controlled preparation of large-area, high-quality two-dimensional crystals is essential for revealing their inherent properties and realizing high-performance devices. However, fabricating two-dimensional (2D) transition metal oxides using a general approach still presents substantial challenges. Herein, we successfully achieve highly crystalline nickel oxide (NiO) flakes with a thickness as thin as 3.3 nm through the salt-assisted vapor–liquid–solid (VLS) growth method, which demonstrated exceptional stability under ambient conditions. To explore the great potential of the NiO crystal in this work, an artificial synapse based on the NiO-flake resistive switching (RS) layer is investigated. Short-term and long-term synaptic behaviors are obtained with external stimuli. The artificial synaptic performance provides the foundation of the neuromorphic application, including handwriting number recognition based on artificial neuron network (ANN) and the virtually unsupervised learning capability based on generative adversarial network (GAN). This pioneering work not only paves new paths for the synthesis of 2D oxides in the future but also demonstrates the substantial potential of oxides in the field of neuromorphic computing.

Keywords

nickel oxide (NiO) flakesvapor–liquid–solid (VLS) growthmemristorsynapsegenerative adversarial network (GAN)

Electronic Supplementary Material

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Nano Research
Volume 17 Issue 5,
May 2024
Pages 4622-4630
DOI: 10.1007/s12274-023-6382-7
Cite this article:
Zhang H, Shen Z, Li A, et al. Salt-assisted vapor–liquid–solid growth of high-quality ultrathin nickel oxide flakes for artificial synapses in image recognition applications. Nano Research, 2024, 17(5): 4622-4630. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-023-6382-7
Topics:
Film growthNickel oxide

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Received: 20 October 2023
Revised: 21 November 2023
Accepted: 28 November 2023
Published: 29 December 2023
© Tsinghua University Press 2023
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