Mimicking somatic behavior of neurons using the integrate and fire model of 2D SnS memristive switching characteristics

This Letter presents the fabrication and characterization of a 2D SnS memristor, proposing its integrate and fire (I&F) model as a potential hardware implementation of neuronal somatic behavior. The memristor comprises a thin layer of tin (II) sulfide (SnS) sandwiched between copper (Cu) electrodes on a silicon (Si) substrate. This structure exhibits an impressive R-off: R-on ratio of 103 at a read voltage V-rd of 0.25 V with exceptionally low switching Vsw and set Vset voltages of 0.3 and 0.35 V, respectively, with similar to 3 order variation between the maximum R-max and R-min resistances offered during single voltage sweep cycle. We have explained the memristive behavior using the dual ionic conduction mechanism in the SnS active layer. We extracted the real-time band diagram of SnS using ultraviolet photoelectron spectroscopy, explaining the low V-sw observed. We propose that the emulation of the I&F artificial neuron model exhibited by the fabricated device could serve as a promising application in the field of artificial neuron spiking