New production method for heterostructure devices

Date:
June 19, 2020
Source:
University of Exeter
Summary:
Researchers have developed a pioneering production method for
heterostructure devices, based on 2D materials such as graphene.



FULL STORY ========================================================================== Researchers at the University of Exeter have developed a pioneering
production method for heterostructure devices, based on 2D materials
such as graphene.


==========================================================================
The new study, published in Nature Communications, focuses on a production method, based around mechanical abrasion, where multilayer structures
are formed through directly abrading different Van der Waals material
powders directly on top of one another.

The new technique saw sharp heterointerfaces emerge for certain
heterostructure combinations. The results pave the way for a wide range
of heterointerface based devices to be opened up.

To demonstrate the applicability of this method, researchers demonstrated
a multitude of different functional devices such as resistors, capacitors, transistors, diodes and photovoltaics.

The work also demonstrated the use of these films for energy applications
such as in triboelectric nanogenerator devices and as a catalyst in the hydrogen evolution reaction.

Darren Nutting, from the University of Exeter and co-author of the study
said: "The production method is really simple, you can go from bare
substrate to functional heterostructure device within about 10 minutes.

"This is all without the need for complex growth conditions, 20 hours
of ultra- sonication or messy liquid phase production.

"The method is applicable to any 2D material crystal, and can easily
be automated to produce heterostructures of arbitrary size and
complexity. This allows for the production of a plethora of device possibilities with superior performance to those created using more
complex methods." Dr Freddie Withers, also from the University of Exeter
and lead author added: "The most interesting and surprising aspect
of this work is that sharply defined heterointerfaces can be realised
through direct abrasion, which we initially expected would lead to an intermixing of materials when directly abrading layer by layer. This observation allows for a large number of different devices to be realised through an extremely simple and low-cost fabrication process.

"We also found that the performance of our materials significantly
outperform the performance of competitive scalable 2D materials production technologies.

We think this is due to larger crystallite sizes and cleaner crystallite interfaces within our films. Considering the rudimentary development of
the abrasive process thus far, it will be interesting to see how far we
can push the performance levels."

========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by University_of_Exeter. Note: Content
may be edited for style and length.


========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Darren Nutting, Jorlandio F. Felix, Evan Tillotson, Dong-Wook Shin,
Adolfo De Sanctis, Hong Chang, Nick Cole, Saverio Russo, Adam
Woodgate, Ioannis Leontis, Henry A. Ferna'ndez, Monica F. Craciun,
Sarah J. Haigh, Freddie Withers. Heterostructures formed through
abraded van der Waals materials. Nature Communications, 2020; 11
(1) DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020- 16717-4 ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/06/200619104303.htm

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