With the advent of graphene, the most studied of all two-dimensional materials, many inorganic analogues have been synthesized and are being exploited for novel applications. Several approaches have been used to obtain large-grain, high-quality materials. Naturally occurring ores, for example, are the best precursors for obtaining highly ordered and large-grain atomic layers by exfoliation. Here, we demonstrate a new two-dimensional material 'hematene' obtained from natural iron ore hematite (α-FeO), which is isolated by means of liquid exfoliation. The two-dimensional morphology of hematene is confirmed by transmission electron microscopy. Magnetic measurements together with density functional theory calculations confirm the ferromagnetic order in hematene while its parent form exhibits antiferromagnetic order. When loaded on titania nanotube arrays, hematene exhibits enhanced visible light photocatalytic activity. Our study indicates that photogenerated electrons can be transferred from hematene to titania despite a band alignment unfavourable for charge transfer.
A distinctive feature of single-layer graphene is the linearly dispersive energy bands, which in the case of multilayer graphene become parabolic. A simple electrical transport-based probe to differentiate between these two band structures will be immensely valuable, particularly when quantum Hall measurements are difficult, such as in chemically synthesized graphene nanoribbons. Here we show that the flicker noise, or the 1/f noise, in electrical resistance is a sensitive and robust probe to the band structure of graphene. At low temperatures, the dependence of noise magnitude on the carrier density was found to be opposite for the linear and parabolic bands. We explain our data with a comprehensive theoretical model that clarifies several puzzling issues concerning the microscopic origin of flicker noise in graphene field-effect transistors (GraFET).
Alloying in 2D results in the development of new, diverse, and versatile systems with prospects in bandgap engineering, catalysis, and energy storage. Tailoring structural phase transitions using alloying is a novel idea with implications in designing all 2D device architecture as the structural phases in 2D materials such as transition metal dichalcogenides are correlated with electronic phases. Here, this study develops a new growth strategy employing chemical vapor deposition to grow monolayer 2D alloys of Re-doped MoSe with show composition tunable structural phase variations. The compositions where the phase transition is observed agree well with the theoretical predictions for these 2D systems. It is also shown that in addition to the predicted new electronic phases, these systems also provide opportunities to study novel phenomena such as magnetism which broadens the range of their applications.
Alloying/doping in 2D material is important due to wide range bandgap tunability. Increasing the number of components would increase the degree of freedom which can provide more flexibility in tuning the bandgap and also reduces the growth temperature. Here, synthesis of quaternary alloys Mo W S Se is reported using chemical vapor deposition. The composition of alloys is tuned by changing the growth temperatures. As a result, the bandgap can be tuned which varies from 1.61 to 1.85 eV. The detailed theoretical calculation supports the experimental observation and shows a possibility of wide tunability of bandgap.
Photo-induced non-radiative energy dissipation is a potential pathway to induce structural-phase transitions in two-dimensional materials. For advancing this field, a quantitative understanding of real-time atomic motion and lattice temperature is required. However, this understanding has been incomplete due to a lack of suitable experimental techniques. Here, we use ultrafast electron diffraction to directly probe the subpicosecond conversion of photoenergy to lattice vibrations in a model bilayered semiconductor, molybdenum diselenide. We find that when creating a high charge carrier density, the energy is efficiently transferred to the lattice within one picosecond. First-principles nonadiabatic quantum molecular dynamics simulations reproduce the observed ultrafast increase in lattice temperature and the corresponding conversion of photoenergy to lattice vibrations. Nonadiabatic quantum simulations further suggest that a softening of vibrational modes in the excited state is involved in efficient and rapid energy transfer between the electronic system and the lattice.
We report the synthesis of ultrathin tellurium films, including atomically thin tellurium tri-layers, by physical vapor deposition (PVD) as well as larger area films by pulsed laser deposition (PLD). PVD leads to sub-nanometer, tri-layer tellurene flakes with distinct boundaries, whereas PLD yields uniform and contiguous sub-7 nm films over a centimeter square. The PLD films exhibit the characteristic hexagonal crystal structure of semiconducting tellurium, but high resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) reveals a unique stacking polytype in the thinner PVD-grown material. Density Functional Theory calculations predict the possible existence of three polytypes of ultrathin Te, including the α-type experimentally observed here. The two complementary growth methods afford a route to controllably synthesize ultrathin Te with thicknesses ranging from three atomic layers up to 6 nm with unique polytypism. Lastly, temperature dependent Raman studies suggest the possible coexistence of polymorphs.
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