Non-linear Bioelectronic Element: Schottky Effect and Electrochemistry

Asymmetric electrical contact (gold and indium) was performed to the slime mold. Electrical characterization of such structure revealed rectifying behavior due to the Schottky effect and a hysteresis due to the electro-chemical activity within the slime mold. Physarum polycephalum belongs to the species of order Physarales, subclass Myxogastromycetidae, class Myxomycetes, and division Myxostelida. It is a single cell with many diploid nuclei. In principle, plasmodium foraging behavior can be interpreted as a computation [1]. Plasmodium can solve computational problems with natural parallelism [2]. In addition, the slime mold can produce rhythmic electrical signals [2, 3], that can be considered as candidates for the clock generator of the biological computers. As the most of the modern computers are based on the electrical signal, it is necessary to integrate the slime mold into such systems. Thus, the aim is to build a non-linear electronic elements with properties, depending also on the slime mold activity. This short paper is dedicated to the realization of such element. One of the simple ways of realization of non-linear elements is the formation of asymmetric structures. In particular, it is possible to organize a structure , where the material is placed between two electrodes, realized from the