Transition metal dichalcogenide metamaterials with atomic precision

Abstract

The ability to extract materials just a few atoms thick has led to the discoveries of graphene, monolayer transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs), and other important two-dimensional materials. The next step in promoting the understanding and utility of flatland physics is to study the one-dimensional edges of these two-dimensional materials as well as to control the edge-plane ratio. Edges typically exhibit properties that are unique and distinctly different from those of planes and bulk. Thus, controlling the edges would allow the design of materials with combined edge-plane-bulk characteristics and tailored properties, that is, TMD metamaterials. However, the enabling technology to explore such metamaterials with high precision has not yet been developed. Here we report a facile and controllable anisotropic wet etching method that allows scalable fabrication of TMD metamaterials with atomic precision. We show that TMDs can be etched along certain crystallographic axes, such that the obtained edges are nearly atomically sharp and exclusively zigzag-terminated. This results in hexagonal nanostructures of predefined order and complexity, including few-nanometer-thin nanoribbons and nanojunctions. Thus, this method enables future studies of a broad range of TMD metamaterials through atomically precise control of the structure.

Single molecule electronic devices with carbon-based materials: status and opportunity

“…In this context, a recent development that may create new avenues for single molecule electronics is transition metal dichalcogenide metamaterials that can be manipulated with atomic precision to lead point contacts. 66 Graphene nanostructure have been widely used as singlemolecule biosensors with focus on DNA sequencing applications. One notable issue which should be taken into account is noise characteristics of graphene structures with sizes on the order of a few nanometres.…”

Broadband Optical Constants and Nonlinear Properties of SnS2 and SnSe2

“…Van der Waals materials have emerged as a promising building block for next-generation optical and electronic devices [ 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 ]. Their planar structure [ 9 , 10 ] and the outstanding compatibility with existing manufacturing techniques [ 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 ] make such materials ideal for integration into modern industrial and scientific devices. Among layered materials, graphene [ 16 ], MoS 2 [ 17 ], and hBN [ 18 ] have received the most attention, as they were the first [ 19 , 20 , 21 ] to catch researchers’ interest during the “two-dimensional” revolution [ 22 ] in material science.…”

Multi-orbital physics of edge-magnetism in a Hubbard model of transition-metal dichalcogenide nanoribbons: Comparing Mean Field Theory and Determinant Quantum Monte Carlo

“…Similarly to graphene, TMDs can also be synthesized in the form of nanoribbons, as recently demonstrated through a variety of methods [30][31][32][33][34][35]. However, contrary to graphene, there is ample experimental evidence of edge-magnetic ordering on few-layer TMD nanostructures [36][37][38][39][40][41][42][43].…”