A Programmable Nonvolatile Schottky Diode Based on van der Waals Ferroelectric Junction
Baoyu Wang, Wenyu Chen, Lingrui Zou, Tao Wang, Zongwen Li, Zhongyi Wang, Haoran Xu, Lijun Xu, Shangui Lan, Pu Feng, Yinchang Ma, Dongxing Zheng, Xin He, Yang Xu, Zheng‐Dong Luo, Zhenhua Wu, Yan Liu, Genquan Han, Xixiang Zhang, Bin Yu, Fei Xue
Abstract
Programmable and nonvolatile Schottky junctions are highly desirable for next-generation electronic and neuromorphic systems. However, conventional metal–semiconductor and even van der Waals (vdW) Schottky diodes often suffer from fixed rectifying behaviors or limited tunability. Here, we report a programmable nonvolatile ferroelectric Schottky diode based on a vdW heterojunction between semimetallic 1T′-MoTe 2 and ferroelectric α-In 2 Se 3 . The diode exhibits near-ideal performance, including a rectification ratio exceeding 10 4, a leakage current down to 1 pA, and an ideality factor as low as 1.38. By switching ferroelectric polarization, the Schottky barrier can be modulated in a programmable manner, enabling reversible, nonvolatile, and multilevel rectification states. The device demonstrates polarization-dependent photoresponse and transient integrate-and-leak dynamics, closely resembling biological spiking neurons. A spiking neural network is implemented based on this behavior, achieving image recognition accuracy up to 98.4%. This work establishes programmable ferroelectric Schottky diodes as promising candidates for low-power memory, reconfigurable logic, and neuromorphic vision.