Optoelectronic‐Driven van der Waals Ferroelectric Materials‐Based Memory Devices for Retinomorphic and In‐Sensory Hardware
2D ferroelectric materials have recently emerged as a promising class of atomically thin semiconductors capable of integrating sensing, memory, and computation within a single device. Their unique combination of spontaneous switchable polarization, strong light-matter coupling, and van der Waals (vdW) interface compatibility provides an ideal platform for next-generation optoelectronic vision sensors. Coupling ferroelectric polarization with photoresponse, 2D ferroelectric materials such as α-In<sub>2</sub>Se<sub>3</sub>, CuInP<sub>2</sub>S<sub>6</sub> (CIPS), SnS, and WTe<sub>3</sub> enable non-volatile modulation of photocarrier transport, facilitating adaptive visual perception analogous to the human retina. These 2D ferroelectric photonic devices demonstrate synaptic plasticity, short-term and long-term memory, and optical potentiation and depression characteristics under visible and near-infrared excitation. Integrating ferroelectricity into optoelectronic architectures addresses the von-Neumann bottleneck by enabling in-sensor computing, where data are sensed, stored, and processed locally, minimizing latency and energy consumption. This review provides a comprehensive overview of 2D ferroelectric materials and their device architectures in the memristive and memtransistors devices structures for optoelectronic vision sensors, highlighting their polarization mechanism, light-driven conductance modulation, and neuromorphic functionalities. Additionally, current challenges, such as scalability, polarization fatigue, and interface engineering, have also been extensively discussed together with heterostructure design and hybrid ferroelectric-semiconductor integration toward energy-efficient bio-inspired vision systems.
Authors
- Parthasarathi Pal (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4888-9596)
- Yeong‐Her Wang
- Themis Prodromakis
- Sanjay Kumar
Institutions
- Indian Institute of Technology Patna (IN)
- Frontier Agriculture (United Kingdom) (GB)
- National Cheng Kung University (TW)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Advanced Science
- Published
- 2026-03-14
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1002/advs.74794
- Primary Topic
- 2D Materials and Applications
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00