No Arabic abstract
The design of stacks of layered materials in which adjacent layers interact by van der Waals forces[1] has enabled the combination of various two-dimensional crystals with different electrical, optical and mechanical properties, and the emergence of novel physical phenomena and device functionality[2-8]. Here we report photo-induced doping in van der Waals heterostructures (VDHs) consisting of graphene and boron nitride layers. It enables flexible and repeatable writing and erasing of charge doping in graphene with visible light. We demonstrate that this photo-induced doping maintains the high carrier mobility of the graphene-boron nitride (G/BN) heterostructure, which resembles the modulation doping technique used in semiconductor heterojunctions, and can be used to generate spatially-varying doping profiles such as p-n junctions. We show that this photo-induced doping arises from microscopically coupled optical and electrical responses of G/BN heterostructures, which includes optical excitation of defect transitions in boron nitride, electrical transport in graphene, and charge transfer between boron nitride and graphene.
Nanoscale control of charge doping in two-dimensional (2D) materials permits the realization of electronic analogs of optical phenomena, relativistic physics at low energies, and technologically promising nanoelectronics. Electrostatic gating and chemical doping are the two most common methods to achieve local control of such doping. However, these approaches suffer from complicated fabrication processes that introduce contamination, change material properties irreversibly, and lack flexible pattern control. Here we demonstrate a clean, simple, and reversible technique that permits writing, reading, and erasing of doping patterns for 2D materials at the nanometer scale. We accomplish this by employing a graphene/boron nitride (BN) heterostructure that is equipped with a bottom gate electrode. By using electron transport and scanning tunneling microscopy (STM), we demonstrate that spatial control of charge doping can be realized with the application of either light or STM tip voltage excitations in conjunction with a gate electric field. Our straightforward and novel technique provides a new path towards on-demand graphene pn junctions and ultra-thin memory devices.
Among two-dimensional atomic crystals, hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) is one of the most remarkable materials to fabricate heterostructures revealing unusual properties. We perform first-principles calculations to determine whether intercalated metal atoms and vacancies can mediate interfacial coupling and influence the structural and electronic properties of the graphene/hBN heterostructure. Metal impurity atoms (Li, K, Cr, Mn, Co, and Cu) as extrinsic defects between the graphene and hBN sheets produce $n$-doped graphene. We also consider intrinsic vacancy defects and find that a boron monovacancy in hBN act as a magnetic dopant for graphene whereas a nitrogen monovacancy in hBN serves as a nonmagnetic dopant for graphene. In contrast, smallest triangular vacancy defects in hBN are unlikely to result in significant changes in the electronic transport of graphene. Our findings reveal that the hBN layer with some vacancies or metal impurities enhance the interlayer coupling in the graphene/hBN heterostructure with respect to charge doping and electron scattering.
Van der Waals heterostructures formed by assembling different two-dimensional atomic crystals into stacks can lead to many new phenomena and device functionalities. In particular, graphene/boron-nitride heterostructures have emerged as a very promising system for band engineering of graphene. However, the intrinsic value and origin of the bandgap in such heterostructures remain unresolved. Here we report the observation of an intrinsic bandgap in epitaxial graphene/boron-nitride heterostructures with zero crystallographic alignment angle. Magneto-optical spectroscopy provides a direct probe of the Landau level transitions in this system and reveals a bandgap of ~ 38 meV (440 K). Moreover, the Landau level transitions are characterized by effective Fermi velocities with a critical dependence on specific transitions and magnetic field. These findings highlight the important role of many body interactions in determining the fundamental properties of graphene heterostructures.
Graphene/hexagonal boron nitride (G/$h$-BN) heterostructures offer an excellent platform for developing nanoelectronic devices and for exploring correlated states in graphene under modulation by a periodic superlattice potential. Here, we report on transport measurements of nearly $0^{circ}$-twisted G/$h$-BN heterostructures. The heterostructures investigated are prepared by dry transfer and thermally annealing processes and are in the low mobility regime (approximately $3000~mathrm{cm}^{2}mathrm{V}^{-1}mathrm{s}^{-1}$ at 1.9 K). The replica Dirac spectra and Hofstadter butterfly spectra are observed on the hole transport side, but not on the electron transport side, of the heterostructures. We associate the observed electron-hole asymmetry to the presences of a large difference between the opened gaps in the conduction and valence bands and a strong enhancement in the interband contribution to the conductivity on the electron transport side in the low-mobility G/$h$-BN heterostructures. We also show that the gaps opened at the central Dirac point and the hole-branch secondary Dirac point are large, suggesting the presence of strong graphene-substrate interaction and electron-electron interaction in our G/$h$-BN heterostructures. Our results provide additional helpful insight into the transport mechanism in G/$h$-BN heterostructures.
Hexagonal boron nitride (BN), one of the very few layered insulators, plays a crucial role in 2D materials research. In particular, BN grown with a high pressure technique has proven to be an excellent substrate material for graphene and related 2D materials, but at the same time very hard to replace. Here we report on a method of growth at atmospheric pressure as a true alternative for producing BN for high quality graphene/BN heterostructures. The process is not only more scalable, but also allows to grow isotopically purified BN crystals. We employ Raman spectroscopy, cathodoluminescence, and electronic transport measurements to show the high-quality of such monoisotopic BN and its potential for graphene-based heterostructures. The excellent electronic performance of our heterostructures is demonstrated by well developed fractional quantum Hall states, ballistic transport over distances around $10,mathrm{mu m}$ at low temperatures and electron-phonon scattering limited transport at room temperature.