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TWO-DIMENSIONAL MATERIALS

Doping on demand in 2D devices

Nature Electronics volume 3, pages 77–78 (2020)Cite this article

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High-resolution doping patterns can be reversibly written in van der Waals heterostructures using a combination of an electron beam and a back-gate voltage.

Semiconductors exhibit tuneable electrical conductivity values that lie between those of conductors and insulators. In their intrinsic form, the materials behave like an insulator at ambient conditions, and doping — the process of introducing charge carriers into semiconductors — is necessary for controlled electrical conduction. Doping semiconductors by introducing chemical impurities has been the key to the development of state-of-the-art silicon electronics, and for three-dimensional semiconductors, such as silicon, doping is reliably achieved by implanting alien atoms (or dopants) to create either free electrons or holes. For two-dimensional (2D) semiconductors, however, directly incorporating dopants has proved challenging due to their atomically thin crystal structure and limited physical space for incorporating impurities in sufficient numbers without inducing serious structural damage.

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Fig. 1: An electron-beam-induced doping technique for 2D devices.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, USA

    Sung-Joon Lee & Yu Huang

  2. Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, USA

    Zhaoyang Lin & Xiangfeng Duan

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  1. Sung-Joon Lee
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  2. Zhaoyang Lin
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  3. Xiangfeng Duan
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  4. Yu Huang
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Correspondence to Yu Huang.

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Lee, SJ., Lin, Z., Duan, X. et al. Doping on demand in 2D devices. Nat Electron 3, 77–78 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41928-020-0376-1

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