An artificial spiking synapse made of molecules and nanoparticles

Molecule-based devices are envisioned to complement silicon devices by providing new functions or already existing functions at a simpler process level and at a lower cost by virtue of their self-organization capabilities, moreover, they are not bound to von Neuman architecture and this may open the way to other architectural paradigms. Here we demonstrate a device made of conjugated molecules and metal nanoparticles (NPs) which behaves as a spiking synapse suitable for integration in neural network architectures. We demonstrate that this device exhibits the main behavior of a biological synapse. These results open the way to rate coding utilization of the NOMFET in perceptron and Hopfield networks. We can also envision the NOMFET as a building block of neuroelectronics for interfacing neurons or neuronal logic devices made from patterned neuronal cultures with solid-state devices and circuits.