Heterostructures formed through abraded van der Waals materials
Darren Nutting, Jorlandio F. Felix, Evan Tillotson, Dong-Wook Shin, Adolfo De Sanctis, Hong Chang, Nick Cole, Saverio Russo, Adam Woodgate, Ioannis Leontis, Henry A. Fernández, Monica F. Craciun, Sarah J. Haigh & Freddie Withers
Nature Communications volume 11, Article number: 3047 (2020) Cite this article
[Abstract]
To fully exploit van der Waals materials and their vertically stacked heterostructures, new mass-scalable production routes which are low cost but preserve the high electronic and optical quality of the single crystals are required. Here, we demonstrate an approach to realise a variety of functional heterostructures based on van der Waals nanocrystal films produced through the mechanical abrasion of bulk powders. We find significant performance enhancements in abraded heterostructures compared to those fabricated through inkjet printing of nanocrystal dispersions. To highlight the simplicity, applicability and scalability of the device fabrication, we demonstrate a multitude of different functional heterostructures such as resistors, capacitors and photovoltaics. We also demonstrate the creation of energy harvesting devices, such as large area catalytically active coatings for the hydrogen evolution reaction and enhanced triboelectric nanogenerator performance in multilayer films. The ease of device production makes this a promising technological route for up-scalable films and heterostructures.
[Introduction]
High-quality van der Waals (vdW) heterostructures are produced by stacking together different two-dimensional (2D) materials1,2. The properties are highly customisable depending on the component materials and the layer sequence, providing use in a wide variety of applications. Compared with conventional compound semiconductor heterostructure devices, they have the potential to offer many advantages. For instance, they are lightweight, semi-transparent and are compatible with flexible substrates, whilst displaying competitive performance. The highest quality vdW heterostructures out-perform conventional materials, but they are still mainly constructed by mechanical exfoliation of bulk single crystals and built up layer-by-layer by standard mechanical transfer procedures1,2,3. However, this precise yet enormously time-consuming method is not scalable and alternative device manufacturing routes are urgently required to achieve widespread uptake of these materials.
Chemical vapour deposition (CVD)4 is a promising synthesis approach for vdW heterostructures, where monolayer films are sequentially grown layer-by-layer at high temperatures, with some of the resulting material heterostructures beginning to approach the performance levels of exfoliated crystals. However, the initial investment required and energy cost of CVD growth is high for a given quantity of monolayer material produced. Furthermore, the growth of multilayer systems becomes increasingly complex with the approach confined to a small number of 2D material combinations. Finally, CVD growth requires the use of catalyst substrates and subsequent transfer of the heterostructure films; this often introduces undesirable contamination, tears and cracks which prevent the formation of high-quality vertical heterostructure devices4.
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