Inspired by the biological neuromorphic system, which exhibits a high degree of connectivity to process huge amounts of information, photonic memory is expected to pave a way to overcome the von Neumann bottleneck for nonconventional computing. Here, a photonic flash memory based on all-inorganic CsPbBr perovskite quantum dots (QDs) is demonstrated. The heterostructure formed between the CsPbBr QDs and semiconductor layer serves as a basis for optically programmable and electrically erasable characteristics of the memory device. Furthermore, synapse functions including short-term plasticity, long-term plasticity, and spike-rate-dependent plasticity are emulated at the device level. The photonic potentiation and electrical habituation are implemented and the synaptic weight exhibits multiple wavelength response from 365, 450, 520 to 660 nm. These results may locate the stage for further thrilling novel advances in perovskite-based memories.

Harvesting biomechanical energy in vivo is an important route in obtaining sustainable electric energy for powering implantable medical devices. Here, we demonstrate an innovative implantable triboelectric nanogenerator (iTENG) for in vivo biomechanical energy harvesting. Driven by the heartbeat of adult swine, the output voltage and the corresponding current were improved by factors of 3.5 and 25, respectively, compared with the reported in vivo output performance of biomechanical energy conversion devices. In addition, the in vivo evaluation of the iTENG was demonstrated for over 72 h of implantation, during which the iTENG generated electricity continuously in the active animal. Due to its excellent in vivo performance, a self-powered wireless transmission system was fabricated for real-time wireless cardiac monitoring. Given its outstanding in vivo output and stability, iTENG can be applied not only to power implantable medical devices but also possibly to fabricate a self-powered, wireless healthcare monitoring system.

The in-depth understanding of ions' generation and movement inside all-inorganic perovskite quantum dots (CsPbBr QDs), which may lead to a paradigm to break through the conventional von Neumann bottleneck, is strictly limited. Here, it is shown that formation and annihilation of metal conductive filaments and Br ion vacancy filaments driven by an external electric field and light irradiation can lead to pronounced resistive-switching effects. Verified by field-emission scanning electron microscopy as well as energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy analysis, the resistive switching behavior of CsPbBr QD-based photonic resistive random-access memory (RRAM) is initiated by the electrochemical metallization and valance change. By coupling CsPbBr QD-based RRAM with a p-channel transistor, the novel application of an RRAM-gate field-effect transistor presenting analogous functions of flash memory is further demonstrated. These results may accelerate the technological deployment of all-inorganic perovskite QD-based photonic resistive memory for successful logic application.

Bioinspired artificial haptic neuron system has received much attention in the booming artificial intelligence industry for its broad range of high-impact applications such as personal healthcare monitoring, electronic skins, and human-machine interfaces. An artificial haptic neuron system is designed by integrating a piezoresistive sensor and a Nafion-based memristor for the first time in this paper. The piezoresistive sensor serves as a sensory receptor to transform mechanical stimuli into electric signals, and the Nafion-based memristor serves as the synapse to further process the information. The pyramid-structured sensor exhibits excellent sensitivity (6.7 × 10 7 kPa −1 in 1-5 kPa and 3.8 × 10 5 kPa −1 in 5-50 kPa) and durability (>7000 cycles), while the memristor realizes fundamental synaptic functions under low power consumption (10-200 pJ) and remains stable for over 10 4 consecutive tests. The integrated system can detect tactile stimuli encoded with temporal information, such as the count, frequency, duration and speed of the external force. As a proof-of-concept, English characters recognition with high accuracy can be achieved on the system under a supervised learning method. This work shows promising potential in bioinspired sensing systems owing to the high performance, excellent durability, and simple fabrication procedure.

The quantitative determination of oxygen concentration is essential for a variety of applications ranging from life sciences to environmental sciences. Optical oxygen sensing allows non-invasive measurements with biological objects, parallel monitoring of multiple samples, and imaging. In general, ratiometric optical oxygen sensing is more desirable, due to its advantages of selectivity, insensitivity to ambient or scattered light, and elimination of instrumental fluctuation. Moreover, it can provide the perceived colour change, which would be useful not only for the ratiometric method of detection but also for rapid visual sensing. Mainly focusing on material design for ratiometric measurement, this review describes the overall progress made in the past ten years on ratiometric optical ground-state triplet oxygen sensing and offers a critical comparison of various methods reported in the literature. It also provides a development blueprint for ratiometric optical oxygen sensing.

A novel hierarchical nanotube array (NTA) with a massive layered top and discretely separated nanotubes in a core–shell structure, that is, nickel–cobalt metallic core and nickel–cobalt layered double hydroxide shell (NiCo@NiCo LDH), is grown on carbon fiber cloth (CFC) by template‐assisted electrodeposition for high‐performance supercapacitor application. The synthesized NiCo@NiCo LDH NTAs/CFC shows high capacitance of 2200 F g−1 at a current density of 5 A g−1, while 98.8% of its initial capacitance is retained after 5000 cycles. When the current density is increased from 1 to 20 A g−1, the capacitance loss is less than 20%, demonstrating excellent rate capability. A highly flexible all‐solid‐state battery‐type supercapacitor is successfully fabricated with NiCo LDH NTAs/CFC as the positive electrode and electrospun carbon fibers/CFC as the negative electrode, showing a maximum specific capacitance of 319 F g−1, a high energy density of 100 W h kg−1 at 1.5 kW kg−1, and good cycling stability (98.6% after 3000 cycles). These fascinating electrochemical properties are resulted from the novel structure of electrode materials and synergistic contributions from the two electrodes, showing great potential for energy storage applications.

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Ambipolar transistors represent a class of transistors where positive (holes) and negative (electrons) charge carriers both can transport concurrently within the semiconducting channel. The basic switching states of ambipolar transistors are comprised of common off-state and separated on-state mainly impelled by holes or electrons. During the past years, diverse materials are synthesized and utilized for implementing ambipolar charge transport and their further emerging applications comprising ambipolar memory, synaptic, logic, and light-emitting transistors on account of their special bidirectional carrier-transporting characteristic. Within this review, recent developments of ambipolar transistor field involving fundamental principles, interface modifications, selected semiconducting material systems, device structures, ambipolar characteristics, and promising applications are highlighted. The existed challenges and prospective for researching ambipolar transistors in electronics and optoelectronics are also discussed. It is expected that the review and outlook are well timed and instrumental for the rapid progress of academic sector of ambipolar transistors in lighting, display, memory, as well as neuromorphic computing for artificial intelligence.