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2D materials

Synthesis of black phosphorus films

Nature Materials volume 22, pages 681–682 (2023)Cite this article

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Controlling the vapour transport mode with sustained release of precursor species allows for the growth of single-crystalline black phosphorus and black phosphorus–arsenic thin films on the millimetre scale.

One hundred years after its first synthesis1, black phosphorus (BP) has attracted considerable attention since 20142,3,4, owing to its impressive electronic properties, low-symmetry structure and thickness-dependent direct bandgap spanning the visible to mid-infrared. However, almost ten years later, only very limited progress has been made on its synthesis in thin film or few-layer form, thus hindering its potential applications in next-generation electronic and optoelectronic devices. In fact, even though BP is the thermodynamically most stable form among all phosphorus allotropes, large kinetic barriers require the utilization of high pressure for its conversion from red or white phosphorus, which makes the direct growth of thin films highly challenging. While the use of catalysts has been successfully employed to grow bulk BP crystals5, it remains difficult to control the nucleation density and grain size of thin films6. Now, writing in Nature Materials, Cheng Chen and colleagues report on a growth process that provides unprecedented control over the nucleation density and allows for the synthesis of crystalline BP films with large lateral grain size on the millimetre scale7.

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Fig. 1: Schematic of the sustained feedstock release strategy used to grow large single-crystal BP flakes.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Electrical Engineering, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA

    Matthieu Fortin-Deschênes & Fengnian Xia

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  1. Matthieu Fortin-Deschênes
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  2. Fengnian Xia
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Correspondence to Matthieu Fortin-Deschênes or Fengnian Xia.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Fortin-Deschênes, M., Xia, F. Synthesis of black phosphorus films. Nat. Mater. 22, 681–682 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41563-023-01548-7

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