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Nanoscale interfaces made easily

Methods for making interfaces between atomically thin sheets of materials might open the way to a range of nanotechnologies. A practically simple method has been reported, based on the cyclical switching of gaseous reagents.
  1. Weijie Zhao

    1. Weijie Zhao is in the Division of Physics and Applied Physics, School of Physical and Mathematical Sciences, Nanyang Technological University, 637371 Singapore.

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  2. Qihua Xiong

    1. Qihua Xiong is in the Division of Physics and Applied Physics, School of Physical and Mathematical Sciences, Nanyang Technological University, 637371 Singapore.

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Atomically thin sheets of semiconducting materials, known as two-dimensional semiconductors, have outstanding potential for making low-power, high-speed electronic and optoelectronic devices1–3, including flexible electronics. Such applications often require heterostructures: interfaces formed between two or more 2D semiconductors, which can either stack on top of each other (vertical heterostructures) or be joined at their edges (lateral heterostructures). Versatile and scalable techniques for the mass production of heterostructures are therefore required. On page 63, Sahoo et al.4 report a substantial advance that allows the controllable growth of seamless, high-quality lateral heterostructures made from widely studied 2D semiconductors known as transition-metal dichalcogenides (TMDs).

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Nature 553, 32-34 (2018)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-017-08755-8

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