Quasi-two-dimensional α-molybdenum oxide thin film prepared by magnetron sputtering for neuromorphic computing

Two-dimensional (2D) layered materials have attracted intensive attention in recent years due to their rich physical properties, and shown great promise due to their low power consumption and high integration density in integrated electronics. However, mostly limited to mechanical exfoliation, large scale preparation of the 2D materials for application is still challenging. Herein, quasi-2D α-molybdenum oxide (α-MoO₃) thin film with an area larger than 100 cm² was fabricated by magnetron sputtering, which is compatible with modern semiconductor industry. An all-solid-state synaptic transistor based on this α-MoO₃ thin film is designed and fabricated. Interestingly, by proton intercalation/deintercalation, the α-MoO₃ channel shows a reversible conductance modulation of about four orders. Several indispensable synaptic behaviors, such as potentiation/depression and short-term/long-term plasticity, are successfully demonstrated in this synaptic device. In addition, multilevel data storage has been achieved. Supervised pattern recognition with high recognition accuracy is demonstrated in a three-layer artificial neural network constructed on this α-MoO₃ based synaptic transistor. This work can pave the way for large scale production of the α-MoO₃ thin film for practical application in intelligent devices.