The rapid advancement of artificial intelligence technology has pushed the limits of computing systems capable of managing large-scale data. However, conventional von Neumann–based architectures are inadequate for such workloads because their physically separated processing and memory units create bottlenecks in speed and energy efficiency. An alternative and promising method for massively parallel, low-power information processing is neuromorphic computing, inspired by the human brain’s function. Artificial synapses primarily enable information processing and transmission, traditionally through electrical signaling. Optical signaling, however, provides key performance advantages, including minimal electrical crosstalk, high operational speed, and reduced power consumption. These properties make optoelectronic synapses preferable to purely electronic ones for high-speed and energy-efficient computing. Semiconductor materials such as transition-metal dichalcogenides, metal oxides, and organic materials, including halide perovskites, have been explored for artificial synapses. Specifically, halide perovskite provides large optical cross-sections, mixed ionic–electronic conduction, tunable band gaps, and inherent current-voltage hysteresis, positioning them as strong candidates for optoelectronic synapses.
The symposium invites contributions on recent progress and challenges in materials design and device structures for low-power optoelectronic neuromorphic devices; structure-property relationships; mechanisms of artificial synapses and their applications; and emerging fields of quantum neuromorphic photonics.
- Photo-memory and optoelectronic synaptic devices
- Two-dimensional (2D) materials
- Phase change materials
- Organic semiconductors
- Quantum dots
- Perovskite nanocrystals
- Resistive-switching-based devices
- Ferroelectric-based memories and transistors
- Optoelectronic synaptic memristors
- Artificial photonic synapses
- Characterization of neuromorphic materials
- Neuromorphic Devices
Juan Bisquert (pHD Universitat de València, 1991) is a Distinguished Research Professor at Instituto de Tecnología Química (Universitat Politècnica de València-Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas). He is Executive Editor for Europe of the Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters. He has been distinguished in the list of Highly Cited Researchers from 2014 to 2024. The research activity of Juan Bisquert has been focused on the application of measurement techniques and physical modeling in several areas of energy devices materials, using organic and hybrid semiconductors as halide perovskite solar cells. Currently the main research topic aims to create miniature devices that operate as neurons and synapses for bio-inspired neuromorphic computation related to data sensing and image processing. The work on this topic combines harnessing hysteresis and memory properties of ionic-electronic conducting devices as memristors and transistors towards computational networks. The work is supported by European Research Council Advanced Grant.
Bruno Ehrler is leading the Hybrid Solar Cells group at AMOLF in Amsterdam since 2014 and is also a honorary professor at the University of Groningen since 2020. His group focuses on perovskite materials science, both on the fundamental level, and for device applications. He is recipient of an ERC Starting Grant and an NWO Vidi grant, advisory board member of the Dutch Chemistry Council, recipient of the WIN Rising Star award, and senior conference editor for nanoGe.
Before moving to Amsterdam, he was a research fellow in the Optoelectronics Group at Cambridge University following post-doctoral work with Professor Sir Richard Friend. During this period, he worked on quantum dots, doped metal oxides and singlet fission photovoltaics. He obtained his PhD from the University of Cambridge under the supervision of Professor Neil Greenham, studying hybrid solar cells from organic semiconductors and inorganic quantum dots. He received his MSci from the University of London (Queen Mary) studying micro-mechanics in the group of Professor David Dunstan.
2022 Science Board member Netherlands Energy Research Alliance (NERA)
2021 Member steering committee National Growth fund application Duurzame MaterialenNL
2021 Member advisory board Dutch Chemistry Council
2020 Honorary professor Universty of Groningen for new hybrid material systems for solar-cell applications
2020 ERC starting Grant for work on aritifical synapses from halide perovskite
2019 Senior conference editor nanoGe
2018 WIN Rising Star award
2017 NWO Vidi Grant for work on metal halide perovskites
since 2014 Group Leader, Hybrid Solar Cell Group, Institute AMOLF, Amsterdam
2013 – 2014 Trevelyan Research Fellow, Selwyn College, University of Cambridge
2012-2013 Postdoctoral Work, University of Cambridge, Professor Sir Richard Friend
2009-2012 PhD in Physics, University of Cambridge, Professor Neil Greenham
2005 – 2009 Study of physics at RWTH Aachen and University of London, Queen Mary College, MSci University of London
Antonio Guerrero is Associate Professor in Applied Physics at the Institute of Advanced Materials (Spain). His background includes synthesis of organic and inorganic materials (PhD in Chemistry). He worked 4 years at Cambridge Dispaly Technology fabricating materiales for organic light emitting diodes and joined University Jaume I in 2010 to lead the fabrication laboratory of electronic devices. His expertise includes chemical and electrical characterization of several types of electronic devices. In the last years he has focused in solar cells, memristors, electrochemical cells and batteries.
Asal Kiazadeh, PhD in Electronics and Optoelectronics, leads the Memristor Group at CENIMAT/i3N and serves as a lecturer at the University of Nova de Lisboa, Faculty of Engineering. She has extensive expertise in flexible oxide electronics and has secured five project grants as a Principal Investigator and key team member, funded by national government agencies and the European Commission. Her research focuses on memristor technology for advanced communication systems, such as THz non-volatile RF switches, and computational domains, including neuromorphic vision and brain-inspired low-power neural network hardware. She has authored over 40 research articles, with 30 of them dedicated to memristor technology.
Wolfgang Tress is currently working as a scientist at LPI, EPFL in Switzerland, with general interests in developing and studying novel photovoltaic concepts and technologies. His research focuses on the device physics of perovskite solar cells; most recently, investigating recombination and hysteresis phenomena in this emerging material system. Previously, he was analyzing and modeling performance limiting processes in organic solar cells.
Julian obtained his B.S. in chemical engineering from the University of New Mexico and his M.Phil. in chemistry from the University of Cambridge, where he studied electrocatalytic materials. He recieved his Ph.D. in chemical engineering from Stanford University under the supervision of Profs. Hemamala Karunadasa and Michael Toney, focusing on synthesis, defect chemistry, and X-ray characterization of halide perovskite semiconductors. Julian is currently a Schmidt Science Fellow at the Unviersity of California, Berkeley; his present research concerns applying chemical design principles to next-generation electronics.