The growing demand for compact and energy-efficient hardware in artificial intelligence and edge computing calls for multifunctional electronic systems beyond conventional architectures. van der Waals (vdW) ferroelectric semiconductors, which couple switchable polarization with tunable carrier transport, offer a promising avenue for reconfigurable electronics. Here, we demonstrate a WSe2/α-In2Se3 vdW heterostructure that enables dynamic and nonvolatile reconfiguration of electrical functionality within a single device. Through bias-mediated control of ferroelectric polarization and the associated interfacial carrier redistribution, the heterostructure exhibits dual-mode operation: as a high-performance photodetector with a detectivity exceeding 1012 Jones and as a nonvolatile memory element. Furthermore, the device emulates biological synaptic plasticity, supporting the implementation of artificial neural networks (ANNs) that achieve 96.76% recognition accuracy on the MNIST data set. This work establishes a versatile and electrically reconfigurable platform based on vdW ferroelectric heterojunctions, enabling dual-mode operation for photodetection and neuromorphic computing.
Chen et al. (2026) studied this question.