Photothermally Activated Artificial Neuromorphic Synapses.

Biological nervous systems rely on the coordination of billions of neurons with complex, dynamic connectivity to enable the ability to process information and form memories. In turn, artificial intelligence and neuromorphic computing platforms have sought to mimic biological cognition through software-based neural networks and hardware demonstrations utilizing memristive circuitry with fixed dynamics. To incorporate the advantages of tunable dynamic software implementations of neural networks into hardware, we develop a proof-of-concept artificial synapse with adaptable resistivity. This synapse leverages the photothermally induced local phase transition of VO