No Arabic abstract
Relative out of plane displacements of the constituent layers of two dimensional materials gives rise to unique low frequency breathing modes. By computing the height-height correlation functions in momentum space, we show that, the layer breathing modes (LBMs) can be mapped consistently to vibrations of a simple linear chain model. Our calculated thickness dependence of LBM frequencies for few layer (FL) graphene and molybdenum disulphide (MoS$_{2}$) are in excellent agreement with available experiments. Our results show a redshift of LBM frequency with increase in temperature, which is a direct consequence of anharmonicities present in the interlayer interaction. We also predict the thickness and temperature dependence of LBM frequencies for FL hexagonal boron nitride (hBN). Our study provides a simple and efficient way to probe the interlayer interaction for layered materials and their heterostructures, with the inclusion of anharmonic effects.
The relation between unusual Mexican-hat band dispersion, ferromagnetism and ferroelasticity is investigated using a combination of analytical, first-principles and phenomenological methods. The class of material with Mexican-hat band edge is studied using the $alpha$-SnO monolayer as a prototype. Such band edge causes a van Hove singularity diverging with $frac{1}{sqrt{E}}$, and in p-type material leads to spatial and/or time-reversal spontaneous symmetry breaking. We show that an unexpected multiferroic phase is obtained in a range of hole density for which the material presents ferromagnetism and ferroelasticity simultaneously.
Manipulating materials with atomic-scale precision is essential for the development of next-generation material design toolbox. Tremendous efforts have been made to advance the compositional, structural, and spatial accuracy of material deposition and patterning. The family of 2D materials provides an ideal platform to realize atomic-level material architectures. The wide and rich physics of these materials have led to fabrication of heterostructures, superlattices, and twisted structures with breakthrough discoveries and applications. Here, we report a novel atomic-scale material design tool that selectively breaks and forms chemical bonds of 2D materials at room temperature, called atomic-layer substitution (ALS), through which we can substitute the top layer chalcogen atoms within the 3-atom-thick transition-metal dichalcogenides using arbitrary patterns. Flipping the layer via transfer allows us to perform the same procedure on the other side, yielding programmable in-plane multi-heterostructures with different out-of-plane crystal symmetry and electric polarization. First-principle calculations elucidate how the ALS process is overall exothermic in energy and only has a small reaction barrier, facilitating the reaction to occur at room temperature. Optical characterizations confirm the fidelity of this design approach, while TEM shows the direct evidence of Janus structure and suggests the atomic transition at the interface of designed heterostructure. Finally, transport and Kelvin probe measurements on MoXY (X,Y=S,Se; X and Y corresponding to the bottom and top layers) lateral multi-heterostructures reveal the surface potential and dipole orientation of each region, and the barrier height between them. Our approach for designing artificial 2D landscape down to a single layer of atoms can lead to unique electronic, photonic and mechanical properties previously not found in nature.
Understanding temperature-dependent hardness of covalent materials is not only of fundamental scientific interest, but also of crucial importance for technical applications. In this work, a temperature-dependent hardness formula for diamond-structured covalent materials is constructed on the basis of the dislocation theory. Our results show that, at low temperature, the Vickers hardness is mainly controlled by Poissons ratio and shear modulus with the latter playing a dominant role. With increasing temperature, the plastic deformation mechanism undergoes a transition from shuffle-set dislocation control to glide-set dislocation control, leading to a steeper drop of hardness at high temperature. In addition, an intrinsic parameter, a3G, is revealed for diamond-structured covalent materials, which measures the resistance to soften at high temperature. Our hardness model shows remarkable agreement with experimental data. Current work not only sheds lights on the physical origin of hardness, but also provides a direct principle for superhard materials design.
The large-scale search for high-performing candidate 2D materials is limited to calculating a few simple descriptors, usually with first-principles density functional theory calculations. In this work, we alleviate this issue by extending and generalizing crystal graph convolutional neural networks to systems with planar periodicity, and train an ensemble of models to predict thermodynamic, mechanical, and electronic properties. To demonstrate the utility of this approach, we carry out a screening of nearly 45,000 structures for two largely disjoint applications: namely, mechanically robust composites and photovoltaics. An analysis of the uncertainty associated with our methods indicates the ensemble of neural networks is well-calibrated and has errors comparable with those from accurate first-principles density functional theory calculations. The ensemble of models allows us to gauge the confidence of our predictions, and to find the candidates most likely to exhibit effective performance in their applications. Since the datasets used in our screening were combinatorically generated, we are also able to investigate, using an innovative method, structural and compositional design principles that impact the properties of the structures surveyed and which can act as a generative model basis for future material discovery through reverse engineering. Our approach allowed us to recover some well-accepted design principles: for instance, we find that hybrid organic-inorganic perovskites with lead and tin tend to be good candidates for solar cell applications.
Nanocontact properties of two-dimensional (2D) materials are closely dependent on their unique nanomechanical systems, such as the number of atomic layers and the supporting substrate. Here, we report a direct observation of toplayer-dependent crystallographic orientation imaging of 2D materials with the transverse shear microscopy (TSM). Three typical nanomechanical systems, MoS2 on the amorphous SiO2/Si, graphene on the amorphous SiO2/Si, and MoS2 on the crystallized Al2O3, have been investigated in detail. This experimental observation reveals that puckering behaviour mainly occurs on the top layer of 2D materials, which is attributed to its direct contact adhesion with the AFM tip. Furthermore, the result of crystallographic orientation imaging of MoS2/SiO2/Si and MoS2/Al2O3 indicated that the underlying crystalline substrates almost do not contribute to the puckering effect of 2D materials. Our work directly revealed the top layer dependent puckering properties of 2D material, and demonstrate the general applications of TSM in the bilayer 2D systems.