As circuit integration continues to advance, power consumption has become a critical bottleneck limiting further development. Multi-valued logic (MVL) has garnered extensive attention due to its potential to reduce interconnect complexity and switching losses. Single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs), with their superior electrical properties, ultra-small dimensions, and controllable aligned array growth, offer unique advantages for the large-scale fabrication of high-density MVL circuits. However, progress in this field using SWCNTs remains relatively lagging compared to two-dimensional materials, primarily due to device stability issues arising from challenges in precise doping control. Here, we demonstrate a system consisting of acetylacetonate metal molecules encapsulated within SWCNTs (M(acac)x@s-SWCNT), in which carrier concentration can be dynamically modulated under an applied electric field. Transistors based on this platform validate that this electric-field-controlled modulation yields three well-defined logic states: 0, 1, and 2. These transistors demonstrate good uniformity and stable operation, showing a static power consumption of 8.2 pW and dynamic power consumption of 0.31 nJ (state 0 to 1) and 0.35 µJ (state 1 to 2). The ternary inverter based on this heterostructure exhibits rail-to-rail output capability, enabling the accurate execution of MVL operations. Ternary weight networks (TWNs) built with these transistors reduce computational complexity and storage, enabling efficient neuromorphic computing.
Teng et al. (2026) studied this question.