Self-induced light emission in solid-state memristors replicates neuronal biophotons

Abstract

Key pre-synaptic and post-synaptic biological functions have been successfully implemented in various hardware systems. A noticeable example are neuronal networks constructed from memristors, which are emulating complex electro-chemical biological dynamics such a neuron's efficacy and plasticity. Neurons are highly active cells, communicating with chemical and electrical stimuli, but also emit light. These photons are suspected to be a complementary vehicle to transport information across the brain. Here, we show that a memristor also releases photons akin to the production of neuronal light. Critical attributes of so-called biophotons such as self-generation, origin, stochasticity, spectral coverage, sparsity and correlation with the neuron's activity are replicated by our solid-state approach. Our findings further extend the emulating capability of a memristor to encompass neuronal biophoton emission and open the possibility to construct a bimodal electro-optical platform with the assistance of atomic-scale devices capable of handling electrons and photons as information carriers.