Full Electrical Switching of a Freestanding Ferrimagnetic Metal for Energy-Efficient Bipolar Neuromorphic Computing

Li Liu; Peixin Qin; Xiang Wang; Xiaobo She; Shaoxuan Zhang; Xiaoning Wang; Hongyu Chen; Guojian Zhao; Zhiyuan Duan; Ziang Meng; Qinghua Zhang; Qiong Wu; Yu Liu; Zhiqi Liu

doi:10.1021/acs.nanolett.5c04033

arXiv · 2512.06669

Full Electrical Switching of a Freestanding Ferrimagnetic Metal for Energy-Efficient Bipolar Neuromorphic Computing

Li Liu·Peixin Qin·Xiang Wang·Xiaobo She·Shaoxuan Zhang·Xiaoning Wang·Hongyu Chen·Guojian Zhao·Zhiyuan Duan·Ziang Meng·Qinghua Zhang·Qiong Wu·Yu Liu·Zhiqi Liu

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Abstract

Flexible electronics and neuromorphic computing face key challenges in material integration and function retention. In particular, freestanding membranes suffer from slow sacrificial layer removal and interfacial strain, while neuromorphic hardware often relies on area-intensive dual-device schemes for bipolar synaptic weights. Here, we present a universal strategy based on water-soluble Sr4Al2O7 sacrificial layers, enabling the rapid release of freestanding ferrimagnetic metal membranes, which exhibit deterministic spin-orbit torque switching characteristics with well-preserved perpendicular magnetic anisotropy and are potential for next-generation ultrafast information technology. Extending this approach, we realize single-device ferrimagnetic synapses exhibiting intrinsic bipolar resistive switching. When implemented in a ResNet-18 architecture, these devices achieve 92% accuracy on CIFAR-10 - comparable to floating-point software models - while halving device counts relative to differential-pair implementations. These results establish a scalable platform linking flexible spintronics with compact, high-performance neuromorphic systems, offering foundational advances for next-generation electronics and brain-inspired hardware.

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Li Liu, Peixin Qin, Xiang Wang, Xiaobo She, Shaoxuan Zhang, Xiaoning Wang, Hongyu Chen, Guojian Zhao, Zhiyuan Duan, Ziang Meng, Qinghua Zhang, Qiong Wu, Yu Liu, Zhiqi Liu. 2025-12-07. Full Electrical Switching of a Freestanding Ferrimagnetic Metal for Energy-Efficient Bipolar Neuromorphic Computing. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.nanolett.5c04033

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