Harnessing earth-abundant lead-free halide perovskite for resistive switching memory and neuromorphic computing

Non-volatile memories are expected to revolutionize a wide range of information technologies, but their manufacturing cost is one of the top concerns researchers must address. This study presents a 1D lead-free halide perovskite K₂CuBr₃, as a novel material candidate for the resistive switching (RS) devices, which features only earth-abundant elements, K, Cu, and Br. To the knowledge, this material is the first low-dimensional halide perovskite with exceptionally low production costs and minimal environmental impact. Owing to the unique 1D carrier transport along the Cu─Br networks, the K₂CuBr₃ RS device exhibits excellent bipolar switching behavior, with an On/Off window of 10⁵ and a retention time of over 1000 s. The K₂CuBr₃ RS devices can also act as artificial synapses to transmit various forms of synaptic plasticities, and their integration into a perceptron artificial neural network can deliver a high algorithm accuracy of 93% for image recognition. Overall, this study underscores the promising attributes of K₂CuBr₃ for the future development of memory storage and neuromorphic computing, leveraging its distinct material properties and economic benefits.