Electron-trapping materials and electron-beam-addressed electron-trapping material devices: an improved model

Optical realization of bioinspired spiking neurons in the electron trapping material thin film

A thin film of electron-trapping material (ETM), when combined with suitable optical bistability, is considered as a medium for optical implementation of bioinspired neural nets. The optical mechanism of ETM under blue light and near-infrared exposure has the inherent ability at the material level to mimic the crucial components of the stylized Hodgkin-Huxley model of biological neurons. Combining this unique property with the high-resolution capability of ETM, a dense network of bioinspired neurons can be realized in a thin film of this infrared stimulable storage phosphor. When combined with suitable optical bistability and optical interconnectivity, it has the potential of producing an artificial nonlinear excitable medium analog to cortical tissue.

Realization of receptive fields with excitatory and inhibitory responses on equilibrium-state luminescence of electron trapping material

Our theoretical modelings and experimental observations illustrate that the equilibrium-state luminescence of electron-trapping materials (ETMs) can be controlled to produce either excitatory or inhibitory responses to the same optical stimulus. Because of this property, ETMs have a unique potential in optical realization of neurobiologically based parallel computations. As a classic example, we have controlled the equilibrium-state luminescence of a thin film of this stimulable storage phosphor to make it behave similarly to the receptive fields of sensory neurons in the mammalian visual system, which are responsible for early visual processing.