No Arabic abstract
We present vibrational properties of Franckeite, which is a naturally occurring van der Waals heterostructure consisting of two different semiconducting layers. Franckeite is a complex layered crystal composed of alternating SnS$_2$ like pseudohexagonal and PbS-like pseudotetragonal layers stacked on top of each other, providing a unique platform to study vibrational properties and thermal transport across layers with mass density and phonon mismatches. By using micro-Raman spectroscopy and first-principles Raman simulations, we found that the PbS-like pseudotetragonal structure is mostly composed of Pb$_3$SbS$_4$. We also discovered several low-frequency Raman modes that originate from the intralayer vibrations of the pseudotetragonal layer. Using density functional theory, we determined all vibrational patterns of Franckeite, whose signatures are observed in the Raman spectrum. By studying temperature dependent Raman spectroscopy (300 K - 500 K), we have found different temperature coefficients for both pseudotetragonal and pseudohexagonal layers. We believe that our study will help understand the vibration modes of its complex heterostructure and the thermal properties at the nanoscale.
The fabrication of van der Waals heterostructures, artificial materials assembled by individually stacking atomically thin (2D) materials, is one of the most promising directions in 2D materials research. Until now, the most widespread approach to stack 2D layers relies on deterministic placement methods which are cumbersome when fabricating multilayered stacks. Moreover, they tend to suffer from poor control over the lattice orientations and the presence of unwanted adsorbates between the stacked layers. Here, we present a different approach to fabricate ultrathin heterostructures by exfoliation of bulk franckeite which is a naturally occurring and air stable van der Waals heterostructure (composed of alternating SnS2-like and PbS-like layers stacked on top of each other). Presenting both an attractive narrow bandgap (<0.7 eV) and p-type doping, we find that the material can be exfoliated both mechanically and chemically down to few-layer thicknesses. We present extensive theoretical and experimental characterizations of the materials electronic properties and crystal structure, and explore applications for near-infrared photodetectors (exploiting its narrow bandgap) and for p-n junctions based on the stacking of MoS2 (n-doped) and franckeite (p-doped)
The exfoliation of two naturally occurring van der Waals minerals, graphite and molybdenite, arouse an unprecedented level of interest by the scientific community and shaped a whole new field of research: 2D materials research. Several years later, the family of van der Waals materials that can be exfoliated to isolate 2D materials keeps growing, but most of them are synthetic. Interestingly, in nature plenty of naturally occurring van der Waals minerals can be found with a wide range of chemical compositions and crystal structures whose properties are mostly unexplored so far. This Perspective aims to provide an overview of different families of van der Waals minerals to stimulate their exploration in the 2D limit.
The designer approach has become a new paradigm in accessing novel quantum phases of matter. Moreover, the realization of exotic states such as topological insulators, superconductors and quantum spin liquids often poses challenging or even contradictory demands for any single material. For example, it is presently unclear if topological superconductivity, which has been suggested as a key ingredient for topological quantum computing, exists at all in any naturally occurring material . This problem can be circumvented by using designer heterostructures combining different materials, where the desired physics emerges from the engineered interactions between the different components. Here, we employ the designer approach to demonstrate two major breakthroughs - the fabrication of van der Waals (vdW) heterostructures combining 2D ferromagnetism with superconductivity and the observation of 2D topological superconductivity. We use molecular-beam epitaxy (MBE) to grow two-dimensional islands of ferromagnetic chromium tribromide (CrBr$_3$) on superconducting niobium diselenide (NbSe$_2$) and show the signatures of one-dimensional Majorana edge modes using low-temperature scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) and spectroscopy (STS). The fabricated two-dimensional vdW heterostructure provides a high-quality controllable platform that can be integrated in device structures harnessing topological superconductivity. Finally, layered heterostructures can be readily accessed by a large variety of external stimuli potentially allowing external control of 2D topological superconductivity through electrical, mechanical, chemical, or optical means.
Heterostructures play significant roles in modern semiconductor devices and micro/nanosystems in a plethora of applications in electronics, optoelectronics, and transducers. While state-of-the-art heterostructures often involve stacks of crystalline epi-layers each down to a few nanometers thick, the intriguing limit would be heterto-atomic-layer structures. Here we report the first experimental demonstration of freestanding van der Waals heterostructures and their functional nanomechanical devices. By stacking single-layer (1L) MoS2 on top of suspended single-, bi-, tri- and four-layer (1L to 4L) graphene sheets, we realize array of MoS2-graphene heterostructures with varying thickness and size. These heterostructures all exhibit robust nanomechanical resonances in the very high frequency (VHF) band (up to ~100 MHz). We observe that fundamental-mode resonance frequencies of the heterostructure devices fall between the values of graphene and MoS2 devices. Quality (Q) factors of heterostructure resonators are lower than those of graphene but comparable to those of MoS2 devices, suggesting interface damping related to interlayer interactions in the van der Waals heterostructures. This study validates suspended atomic layer heterostructures as an effective device platform and opens opportunities for exploiting mechanically coupled effects and interlayer interactions in such devices.
We have combined spatially-resolved steady-state micro-photoluminescence ($mu$PL) with time-resolved photoluminescence (TRPL) to investigate the exciton diffusion in a WSe$_2$ monolayer encapsulated with hexagonal boron nitride (hBN). At 300 K, we extract an exciton diffusion length $L_X= 0.36pm 0.02 ; mu$m and an exciton diffusion coefficient of $D_X=14.5 pm 2;mbox{cm}^2$/s. This represents a nearly 10-fold increase in the effective mobility of excitons with respect to several previously reported values on nonencapsulated samples. At cryogenic temperatures, the high optical quality of these samples has allowed us to discriminate the diffusion of the different exciton species : bright and dark neutral excitons, as well as charged excitons. The longer lifetime of dark neutral excitons yields a larger diffusion length of $L_{X^D}=1.5pm 0.02 ;mu$m.