Researchers are
always searching for improved technologies, but the most efficient computer
possible already exists. It can learn and adapt without needing to be
programmed or updated. It has nearly limitless memory, is difficult to crash,
and works at extremely fast speeds. It's not a Mac or a PC; it's the human
brain. And scientists around the world want to mimic its abilities. Both
academic and industrial laboratories are working to develop computers that
operate more like the human brain. Instead of operating like a conventional,
digital system, these new devices could potentially function more like a
network of neurons.
A team of
Northwestern researchers have accomplished a new step forward in electronics
that could bring brain-like computing closer to reality. The team's work
advances memory resistors, or ‘memristors’, which are resistors in a circuit
that remember how much current has flowed through them. They are using
single-layer molybdenum disulfide (MoS2), a thin 2D nanomaterial semiconductor.
Much like the way fibers are arranged in wood, atoms are arranged in a certain
direction (called grains) within a material. The sheet of MoS2 that they used
has a well-defined grain boundary, which is the interface where two different
grains come together.
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