Optoelectronic-driven van der Waals Ferroelectric Materials-based Memory Devices for Retinomorphic and In-sensory Hardware

Two-dimensional (2D) ferroelectric materials have recently emerged as a promising class of atomically thin semiconductors capable of integrating sensing, memory, and computation within a single device. Their unique combination of spontaneous switchable polarization, strong light-matter coupling, and van der Waals (vdW) interface compatibility provides an ideal platform for next-generation optoelectronic vision sensors. Coupling ferroelectric polarization with photoresponse, 2D ferroelectric materials such as α-In2Se3, CuInP2S6 (CIPS), SnS, and WTe3 enable non-volatile modulation of photocarrier transport, facilitating adaptive visual perception analogous to the human retina. These 2D ferroelectric photonic devices demonstrate synaptic plasticity, short-term and long-term memory, and optical potentiation and depression characteristics under visible and near-infrared excitation. Integrating ferroelectricity into optoelectronic architectures addresses the von-Neumann bottleneck by enabling insensor computing, where data are sensed, stored, and processed locally, minimizing latency and energy consumption. This review provides a comprehensive overview of 2D ferroelectric materials and their device architectures in the memristive and memtransistors devices structures for optoelectronic vision sensors, highlighting their polarization mechanism, light-driven conductance modulation, and neuromorphic functionalities. Additionally, current challenges, such as scalability, polarization fatigue, and interface engineering, have also been extensively discussed together with heterostructure design and hybrid ferroelectric-semiconductor integration towards energy-efficient bio-inspired vision systems.