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VAN DER WAALS MATERIALS

Illuminating interlayer interactions

Nature Materials volume 17, pages 211–213 (2018)Cite this article

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A synchrotron X-ray diffraction experiment demonstrates an unexpected accumulation of electron density in the interlayer region of TiS2, and provides a benchmark for theoretical models of weak interlayer bonding.

Van der Waals (vdW) layered materials, such as transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs), were brought into the spotlight soon after the discovery of graphene. In contrast to graphene, whose monolayer is a single sheet of carbon atoms, the elementary layer of TMDs is a sandwich structure consisting of three atomic sheets: the top and bottom ones are chalcogen atoms in a triangular lattice structure, and the middle one is formed of metal atoms each covalently bonded to three chalcogen atoms in the top sheet and three in the bottom. This structural configuration ensures that each layer of TMDs has fully saturated chemical bonds on the surface, and therefore their interlayer interactions are widely believed to be dominated by vdW forces. Because of these flawless surface structures, which are free of dangling bonds and trap states, monolayer and few-layer TMDs exhibit extraordinary electronic and optical properties. Also thanks to vdW forces, highly disparate sheet materials can be integrated layer by layer via this weak interaction without the constraints of crystal lattice matching, holding promise for building novel heterostructures with functions that were not previously possible1,2.

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Fig. 1: Schematic of intralayer and interlayer interactions of 1T-TiS2.

adapted from ref. 3, Macmillan Publishers Ltd.

Fig. 2: Artistic cross-section view for PtS2 bilayer and the interlayer differential charge density.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. National Center for Nanoscience and Technology, Beijing, China

    Xiaohui Qiu

  2. Department of Physics, Renmin University of China, Beijing, China

    Wei Ji

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  1. Xiaohui Qiu
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  2. Wei Ji
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Correspondence to Xiaohui Qiu or Wei Ji.

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Qiu, X., Ji, W. Illuminating interlayer interactions. Nature Mater 17, 211–213 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41563-018-0027-3

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