The poor endurance of hafnium oxide (HfO2)-based ferroelectric field-effect transistors (FeFETs) limits their applications. From a novel perspective of ferroelectric domain engineering, we propose and fabricate a high endurance HfO2-based FeFET with monolayer graphene (GR) inserted in the gate oxide for the first time. The introduction of GR between the ferroelectric (FE) layer and the interfacial layer (IL) increases the number of domains in the ferroelectric (FE) layer and reduces the electric field of the IL. Meanwhile, the low density of states (DOS) of monolayer GR suppresses the charge injection to further optimize the endurance. Experimental results show that the endurance of the GR-intercalated FeFET (GR-FeFET) exceeds 108 cycles, which is more than 2 orders of magnitude higher than that of the conventional FeFET. The gate leakage is also effectively suppressed by the GR layer. This work opens a new avenue for improvement of the endurance of FeFETs and demonstrates GR-FeFETs as potential candidates for next-generation embedded memory applications.

Two-dimensional (2D) van der Waals ferroelectric materials have emerged as promising candidates for miniaturized devices due to their atomically thin structures and unique ability to maintain ferroelectricity even at reduced dimensions. Recent research indicates that the interfacial barriers between semiconductors and ferroelectrics can be modulated by polarization charges, with ferroelectric polarization—reversible by an external electric field—playing a crucial role in the switchable diode effect. In this work, we investigate a room-temperature switchable ferroelectric diode (Fe-diode) based on a MoS2/α-In2Se3 heterojunction. The out-of-plane ferroelectric properties of the α-In2Se3 layer enable efficient modulation of the Schottky barriers at the MoS2/α-In2Se3 interface through external voltage application, thereby achieving a notable switchable diode effect with a nonlinearity of up to 934. By exploiting the inherent nonlinearity, the ferroelectric diode can effectively generate complex signal waveforms, making it highly suitable for secure communication systems. These findings make the ferroelectric diode a potential candidate for enhancing confidentiality in future communication technologies, protecting data against eavesdropping and unauthorized access.

Abstract Vanadium dioxide (VO2), renowned for its reversible metal-to-insulator transition (MIT), has been widely used in configurable photonic and electronic devices. Precisely tailoring the MIT of VO2 on micro-/nano-scale is crucial for miniaturized and integrated devices. However, existing tailoring techniques like scanning probe microscopy, despite their precision, fall short in efficiency and adaptability, particularly on complex or curved surfaces. Herein, this work achieves the local engineering of the phase of VO2 films in high efficiency by employing laser writing to assist in the hydrogen doping or dedoping process. The laser doping and laser dedoping technique is also highly flexible, enabling the fabrication of reconfigurable, non-volatile, and multifunctional VO2 devices. This approach establishes a new paradigm for creating reconfigurable micro/nanophotonic and micro/nanoelectronic devices.

Miniaturized spectrometers in the mid-infrared (MIR) are critical in developing next-generation portable electronics for advanced sensing and analysis. The bulky gratings or detector/filter arrays in conventional micro-spectrometers set a physical limitation to their miniaturization. In this work, we demonstrate a single-pixel MIR micro-spectrometer that reconstructs the sample transmission spectrum by a spectrally dispersed light source instead of spatially grated light beams. The spectrally tunable MIR light source is realized based on the thermal emissivity engineered via the metal-insulator phase transition of vanadium dioxide (VO2). We validate the performance by showing that the transmission spectrum of a magnesium fluoride (MgF2) sample can be computationally reconstructed from sensor responses at varied light source temperatures. With potentially minimum footprint due to the array-free design, our work opens the possibility where compact MIR spectrometers are integrated into portable electronic systems for versatile applications.

With the developing technologies of artificial intelligence and the Internet of Things, intelligent IoT (iIoT) is prevailing currently. Design and implementation of integrated IoT nodes with continuous perception capability are indispensable to realize various smart terminal devices, which would also be vital to reduce the power consumption, improve the real-time performance, and enhance the security/privacy of the IoT system. In this paper, we present the architecture of “Sensing with Computing” and its chip design for smart sensing applications, which would support multi-modal perception signal processing with multi-dimension extension ability. Specially, we explore the analog/mixed-signal circuit designs and algorithm-hardware co-design methodologies for perception signal processing, and we also study the multi-modal integration of novel sensors and their interface technologies. Additionally, some multi-modal smart sensing systems with “Sensing + Computing in Memory” mixed-signal chips would be fabricated, which would support typical always-on smart sensing tasks.