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Bandgap tuning of two-dimensional materials by sphere diameter engineering

Nature Materials volume 19, pages 528–533 (2020)Cite this article

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Abstract

Developing a precise and reproducible bandgap tuning method that enables tailored design of materials is of crucial importance for optoelectronic devices. Towards this end, we report a sphere diameter engineering (SDE) technique to manipulate the bandgap of two-dimensional (2D) materials. A one-to-one correspondence with an ideal linear working curve is established between the bandgap of MoS2 and the sphere diameter in a continuous range as large as 360 meV. Fully uniform bandgap tuning of all the as-grown MoS2 crystals is realized due to the isotropic characteristic of the sphere. More intriguingly, both a decrease and an increase of the bandgap can be achieved by constructing a positive or negative curvature. By fusing individual spheres in the melted state, post-synthesis bandgap adjustment of the supported 2D materials can be realized. This SDE technique, showing good precision, uniformity and reproducibility with high efficiency, may further accelerate the potential applications of 2D materials.

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Fig. 1: The generation of lattice deformation in 2D crystals.
Fig. 2: The sphere diameter-determined bandgap tuning effect in the SDE process.
Fig. 3: Uniform bandgap engineering of MoS2 in the SDE process.
Fig. 4: Realization of post-adjustment of the sphere diameter and MoS2 bandgap by designing the assembly of sphere blocks.

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Data availability

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

Code availability

The custom code for the phase field analysis is available from the corresponding authors upon reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

The research was supported by the Natural Science Foundation of China (grants 21673161, 21905210 and 21473124), the Sino-German Center for Research Promotion (grant GZ 1400) and the Postdoctoral Innovation Talent Support Program of China (grant BX20180224). This research used resources of the Advanced Photon Source, a US Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science User Facility operated for the DOE Office of Science by Argonne National Laboratory under contract no. DE-AC02-06CH11357. We thank H. Xu for PL characterizations. L.F. acknowledges support by Wuhan University President’s Funding.

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Author notes

  1. These authors contributed equally: Mengqi Zeng, Jinxin Liu.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Chemistry and Molecular Sciences, Wuhan University, Wuhan, China

    Mengqi Zeng, Jinxin Liu & Lei Fu

  2. The Institute for Advanced Studies, Wuhan University, Wuhan, China

    Lu Zhou & Lei Fu

  3. IFW Dresden, Dresden, Germany

    Rafael G. Mendes & Mark H. Rümmeli

  4. College of Physics, Optoelectronics and Energy & Collaborative Innovation Center of Suzhou Nano Science and Technology, Soochow University, Suzhou, China

    Rafael G. Mendes, Liang Zhao & Mark H. Rümmeli

  5. X-ray Science Division, Advanced Photon Source, Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, IL, USA

    Yongqi Dong, Zhonghou Cai, Zhan Zhang & Hua Zhou

  6. National Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui, China

    Yongqi Dong

  7. College of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering, Peking University, Beijing, China

    Min-Ye Zhang, Zhi-Hao Cui & Hong Jiang

  8. Shanghai Synchrotron Radiation Facility, Shanghai Institute of Applied Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China

    Daming Zhu, Tieying Yang & Xiaolong Li

  9. Shanghai Institute of Applied Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China

    Jianqiang Wang

  10. School of Mathematics and Statistics, Wuhan University, Wuhan, China

    Guoxian Chen

  11. Hubei Key Laboratory of Computational Science, Wuhan University, Wuhan, China

    Guoxian Chen

  12. Centre of Polymer and Carbon Materials, Polish Academy of Sciences, Zabrze, Poland

    Mark H. Rümmeli

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  1. Mengqi Zeng
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Contributions

L.F. developed the concept and conceived the experiments. H.Z. contributed to the surface XRD measurement via synchrotron radiation. M.Q.Z. and J.X.L. carried out the main experiments. L.F., M.Q.Z. and J.X.L. wrote the manuscript. M.Q.Z., J.X.L., L. Zhou, R.G.M., Y.Q.D., M.-Y.Z., Z.-H.C., Z.H.C., Z.Z., D.M.Z., T.Y.Y., X.L.L., J.Q.W., L. Zhao, G.X.C., H.J., M.H.R. and H.Z. contributed to data analysis and scientific discussion.

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Correspondence to Hua Zhou or Lei Fu.

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Supplementary Information

Supplementary discussions, Figs. 1–29, Table 1 and refs. 1–40.

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Zeng, M., Liu, J., Zhou, L. et al. Bandgap tuning of two-dimensional materials by sphere diameter engineering. Nat. Mater. 19, 528–533 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41563-020-0622-y

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