No Arabic abstract
Heterostructures involving two-dimensional (2D) transition metal dichalcogenides and other materials such as graphene have a strong potential to be the fundamental building block of many electronic and opto-electronic applications. The integration and scalable fabrication of such heterostructures is of essence in unleashing the potential of these materials in new technologies. For the first time, we demonstrate the growth of few-layer MoS2 films on graphene via non-aqueous electrodeposition. Through methods such as scanning and transmission electron microscopy, atomic force microscopy, Raman spectroscopy, energy and wavelength dispersive X-ray spectroscopies and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, we show that this deposition method can produce large-area MoS2 films with high quality and uniformity over graphene. We reveal the potential of these heterostructures by measuring the photo-induced current through the film. These results pave the way towards developing the electrodeposition method for the large-scale growth of heterostructures consisting of varying 2D materials for many applications.
Developing novel techniques for depositing transition metal dichalcogenides is crucial for the industrial adoption of 2D materials in optoelectronics. In this work, the lateral growth of molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) over an insulating surface is demonstrated using electrochemical deposition. By fabricating a new type of microelectrodes, MoS2 2D films grown from TiN electrodes across opposite sides have been connected over an insulating substrate, hence, forming a lateral device structure through only one lithography and deposition step. Using a variety of characterization techniques, the growth rate of MoS2 has been shown to be highly anisotropic with lateral to vertical growth ratios exceeding 20-fold. Electronic and photo-response measurements on the device structures demonstrate that the electrodeposited MoS2 layers behave like semiconductors, confirming their potential for photodetection applications. This lateral growth technique paves the way towards room temperature, scalable and site-selective production of various transition metal dichalcogenides and their lateral heterostructures for 2D materials-based fabricated devices.
Two-dimensional (2D) antimony (Sb, antimonene) recently attracted interest due to its peculiar electronic properties and its suitability as anode material in next generation batteries. Sb however exhibits a large polymorphic/allotropic structural diversity, which is also influenced by the Sbs support. Thus understanding Sb heterostructure formation is key in 2D Sb integration. Particularly 2D Sb/graphene interfaces are of prime importance as contacts in electronics and electrodes in batteries. We thus study here few-layered 2D Sb/graphene heterostructures by atomic-resolution (scanning) transmission electron microscopy. We find the co-existence of two Sb morphologies: First is a 2D growth morphology of layered beta-Sb with beta-Sb(001)||graphene(001) texture. Second are one-dimensional (1D) Sb nanowires which can be matched to beta-Sb with beta-Sb[2-21] perpendicular to graphene(001) texture and are structurally also closely related to thermodynamically non-preferred cubic Sb(001)||graphene(001). Importantly, both Sb morphologies show rotational van-der-Waals epitaxy with the graphene support. Both Sb morphologies are well resilient against environmental bulk oxidation, although superficial Sb-oxide layer formation merits consideration, including formation of novel epitaxial Sb2O3(111)/beta-Sb(001) heterostructures. Exact Sb growth behavior is sensitive on employed processing and substrate properties including, notably, the nature of the support underneath the direct graphene support. This introduces the substrate underneath a direct 2D support as a key parameter in 2D Sb heterostructure formation. Our work provides insights into the rich phase and epitaxy landscape in 2D Sb and 2D Sb/graphene heterostructures.
Rhombohedral-stacked few-layer graphene (FLG) has been receiving an ever-increasing attention owing to its peculiar electronic properties that could lead to enticing phenomena such as superconductivity and magnetic ordering. Up to now, experimental studies on such material have been mainly limited by the difficulty in isolating it in thickness exceeding 3 atomic layers with device-compatible size. In this work, rhombohedral graphene with thickness up to 9 layers and areas up to ~50 micrometers square is grown via chemical vapor deposition (CVD) on suspended Cu foils and transferred onto target substrates via etch-free delamination. The domains of rhombohedral FLG are identified by Raman spectroscopy and are found to alternate with domains of Bernal-stacked FLG within the same crystal in a stripe-like configuration. A combined analysis of micro-Raman mapping, atomic force microscopy and optical microscopy indicates that the formation of rhombohedral-stacked FLG is strongly correlated to the copper substrate morphology. Cu step bunching results in bending of FLG and interlayer displacement along preferential crystallographic orientations, as determined experimentally by electron microscopy, thus inducing the stripe-like domains. The growth and transfer of rhombohedral FLG with the reported thickness and size shall facilitate the observation of predicted unconventional physics and ultimately add to its technological relevance.
We demonstrate that the confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM) provides a non-destructive, highly-efficient characterization method for large-area epitaxial graphene and graphene nanostructures on SiC substrates, which can be applied in ambient air without sample preparation and is insusceptible to surface charging or surface contamination. Based on the variation of reflected intensity from regions covered by interfacial layer, single layer, bilayer, or few layer graphene, and through the correlation to the results from Raman spectroscopy and SPM, CLSM images with a high resolution (around 150 nm) reveal that the intensity contrast has distinct feature for undergrown graphene (mixing of dense, parallel graphene nanoribbons and interfacial layer), continuous graphene, and overgrown graphene. Moreover, CLSM has a real acquisition time hundreds of times faster per unit area than the supplementary characterization methods. We believe that the confocal laser scanning microscope will be an indispensable tool for mass-produced epitaxial graphene or applicable 2D materials.
Two-dimensional (2D) materials family with its many members and different properties has recently drawn great attention. Thanks to their atomic thickness and smooth surface, 2D materials can be constructed into heterostructures or homostructures in the fashion of out-of-plane perpendicular stacking or in-plane lateral stitching, resulting in unexpected physical and chemical properties and applications in many areas. In particular, 2D metal-semiconductor heterostructures or homostructures (MSHSs) which integrate 2D metals and 2D semiconductors, have shown great promise in future integrated electronics and energy-related applications. In this review, MSHSs with different structures and dimensionalities are first introduced, followed by several ways to prepare them. Their applications in electronics and optoelectronics, energy storage and conversion, and their use as platforms to exploit new physics are then discussed. Finally, we give our perspectives about the challenges and future research directions in this emerging field.