Disorder-mediated non-equilibrium photocurrent redistribution enables homeostatic synaptic conditioning in AgBiS2 heterostructure
Disorder-induced energetic landscape in semiconductors is typically regarded as a parasitic source of non-radiative energetic losses, yet emerging theory suggests that controlled cationic disorder in multicomponent chalcogenides can define reproducible routes for achieving exceptional optical and electrical properties. Here, we establish cationic disorder-engineered AgBiS2 heterostructures as optically addressable synaptic elements, in which precisely reconfigurable trap-state population serves as a scalable analogue memory variable. By coupling AgBiS2 with an optically complementary narrow-bandgap fused-ring organic semiconductor (Y6), nonequilibrium photocarrier redistribution across disorder-induced states becomes selectively driven by excitation wavelength, enabling bidirectional and homeostatic plasticity in a single device. Near-infrared excitation populates disorder-mediated states to yield >10-fold conductance enhancement with large analogue hysteresis characteristic of accelerated long-term potentiation (LTP), while short-wavelength excitation depopulates these states to selectively accelerate long-term depression (LTD). Wavelength-dependent trap occupation dynamics, resolved through ultrafast transient spectroscopy, validate this disorder-mediated memory volatility mechanism. Neuromorphic simulations show that such spectrally segmented LTP/LTD enables color-conditioned learning with intrinsic negative-feedback stabilization. These results redefine ionic disorder from an unavoidable defect to a functional design parameter for excitability control, offering a materials platform for spectrally programmable neuromorphic hardware. Disorder-induced energetic landscape in semiconductors is typically a parasitic source of non-radiative energetic losses. Here, the authors engineer disorder in heterostructures for wavelength-selective, bidirectional synaptic control of memory states, achieving homeostatic learning for neuromorphic computing.
Authors
- Minkyun Son
- Hyun Min Kwon (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1536-8222)
- Sung Yeol Lim
- Jin Hyeon Kim
- Sae Byeok Jo (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7383-3546)
- Sunil V. Barma (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8487-421X)
- Min Sung Kim (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0768-8413)
- Chan Kim (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0008-9664-8608)
- Wooseok Yang
- Hanbyeol Oh
- Jeong Ho Cho (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1030-9920)
- Hyun Woo Kim
- Hui Chan Ahn
- Neul Ha (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7822-2330)
Institutions
- Yonsei University (KR)
- Sungkyunkwan University (KR)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Nature Communications
- Published
- 2026-05-18
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-73235-5
- Primary Topic
- Advanced Memory and Neural Computing
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00
Funders
- National Research Foundation of Korea