Mott insulators: A large class of materials for Leaky Integrate and Fire (LIF) artificial neuron

A major challenge in the field of neurocomputing is to mimic the brain's behavior by implementing artificial synapses and neurons directly in hardware. Toward that purpose, many researchers are exploring the potential of new materials and new physical phenomena. Recently, a new concept of the Leaky Integrate and Fire (LIF) artificial neuron was proposed based on the electric Mott transition in the inorganic Mott insulator GaTa₄Se₈. In this work, we report on the LIF behavior in simple two-terminal devices in three chemically very different compounds, the oxide (V_0.89Cr_0.11)₂O₃, the sulfide GaMo₄S₈, and the molecular system [Au(iPr-thiazdt)₂] (C₁₂H₁₄AuN₂S₈), but sharing a common feature, their Mott insulator ground state. In all these devices, the application of an electric field induces a volatile resistive switching and a remarkable LIF behavior under a train of pulses. It suggests that the Mott LIF neuron is a general concept that can be extended to the large class of Mott insulators.