As one of the most important members of the two dimensional chalcogenide family, molybdenum disulphide (MoS2) has played a fundamental role in the advancement of low dimensional electronic, optoelectronic and piezoelectric designs. Here, we demonstrate a new approach to solid state synaptic transistors using two dimensional MoS2 floating gate memories. By using an extended floating gate architecture which allows the device to be operated at near-ideal subthreshold swing of 77 mV/decade over four decades of drain current, we have realised a charge tunneling based synaptic memory with performance comparable to the state of the art in neuromorphic designs. The device successfully demonstrates various features of a biological synapse, including pulsed potentiation and relaxation of channel conductance, as well as spike time dependent plasticity (STDP). Our device returns excellent energy efficiency figures and provides a robust platform based on ultrathin two dimensional nanosheets for future neuromorphic applications.Understanding the complexities in the functioning of the human brain has been one of the foremost challenges in the field of neuroscience. Among the several proposed models, only a few can explain the operation of a human brain and that too for a very limited set of functionalities [1][2][3] . From an electronic point of view, the computational architecture of a brain is vastly different from that of a traditional von Neumann architecture based system [4,5] . This has led to the emergence of neuromorphic computation schemes [6][7][8][9][10] . Current computation follows an architecture where processing and storage of data is handled by separate entities whereas in neuromorphic computation, processing and storage of data is handled by a single element which acts as the electrical analogue of a synapse. Mimicing the functionality and density of synapses in the brain would lead to a massive reduction in energy consumption and immensely enhance computational capabilities like parallel processing. Given the high density of synapses required, traditional silicon based devices which are plagued by power dissipation and short channel effects are rendered unsuitable for scalable neuromorphic applications [11,12] . This makes ultrathin two dimensional materials a perfect candidate for the active element of a synaptic transistor given their immunity to short channel effects and excellent gate coupling at nanometer length scales [12,13] .Biologically, a synapse functions by changing its conductivity based on the sequence of synaptic pulses it receives. This is accomplished by varying the concentration of neurotransmitters or chemical stimulants which control the conductivity of the junction between two neurons [14] . An ideal synaptic transistor must possess the ‡ e-mail:tathagata@iisc.ac.in, arindam@iisc.ac.in twin qualities of being a non-volatile memory while inculcating a learning based mechanism to deduce its conductance from the history of applied inputs [15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28...

Strong optoelectronic response in the binary van der Waals heterostructures of graphene and transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDCs) is an emerging route towards high-sensitivity light sensing. While the high sensitivity is an effect of photogating of graphene due to inter-layer transfer of photo-excited carriers, the impact of intrinisic defects, such as traps and mid-gap states in the chalcogen layer remain largely unexplored. Here we employ graphene/hBN (hexagonal boron nitride)/MoS 2 (molybdenum disulphide) trilayer heterostructures to explore the photogating mechanism, where the hBN layer acts as interfacial barrier to tune the charge transfer timescale. We find two new features in the photoresponse: First, an unexpected positive component in photoconductance upon illumination at short times that preceeds the conventional negative photoconductance due to charge transfer, and second, a strong negative photoresponse at infrared wavelengths (up to 1720 nm) well-below the band gap of single layer MoS 2 . Detailed time and gate voltage-dependence of the photoconductance indicates optically-driven charging of trap states as possible origin of these observations. The responsivity of the trilayer structure in the infrared regime was found to be extremely large (> 10 8 A/W at 1550 nm using 20 mV source drain bias at 180 K temperature and ≈ − 30 V back gate voltage). Our experiment demonstrates that interface engineering in the optically sensitive van der Waals heterostructures may cast crucial insight onto both inter-and intra-layer charge reorganization processes in graphene/TMDC heterostructures.

Van der Waals hybrids of graphene and transition metal dichalcogenides exhibit an extremely large response to optical excitation, yet counting of photons with single-photon resolution is not achieved. Here, a dual-gated bilayer graphene (BLG) and molybdenum disulphide (MoS ) hybrid are demonstrated, where opening a band gap in the BLG allows extremely low channel (receiver) noise and large optical gain (≈10 ) simultaneously. The resulting device is capable of unambiguous determination of the Poissonian emission statistics of an optical source with single-photon resolution at an operating temperature of 80 K, dark count rate 0.07 Hz, and linear dynamic range of ≈40 dB. Single-shot number-resolved single-photon detection with van der Waals heterostructures may impact multiple technologies, including the linear optical quantum computation.

The transfer of charge carriers across the optically excited hetero-interface of graphene and semiconducting transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDCs) is the key to convert light to electricity, although the intermediate steps from the creation of excitons in TMDC to the collection of free carriers in the graphene layer are not fully understood. Here, we investigate photo-induced charge transport across graphene–MoS2 and graphene–WSe2 hetero-interfaces using time-dependent photoresistance relaxation with varying temperature, wavelength, and gate voltage. In both types of heterostructures, we observe an unprecedented resonance in the inter-layer charge transfer rate as the Fermi energy ( E F) of the graphene layer is tuned externally with a global back gate. We attribute this to a resonant quantum tunneling from the excitonic state of the TMDC to E F of the graphene layer and outline a new method to estimate the excitonic binding energies ( E b) in the TMDCs, which are found to be 400 meV and 460 meV in MoS2 and WSe2 layers, respectively. The gate tunability of the inter-layer charge transfer timescales may allow precise engineering and readout of the optically excited electronic states at graphene–TMDC interfaces.

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