We introduce a method of local gating for van der Waals heterostructures, employing a few-layer graphene patterned bottom gate. Being a member of the 2D material family, few-layer graphene adapts perfectly to the commonly used stacking method. Its versatility regarding patterning as well as its flatness make it an ideal candidate for experiments on locally gated 2D materials. Moreover, in combination with ultra-thin hexagonal boron nitride as an insulating layer, sharp potential steps can be created and the quality of the investigated 2D material can be sustained. To underline the good feasibility and performance, we show results on transport experiments in periodically modulated graphene- boron nitride heterostructures, where the charge carrier density is tuned via locally acting patterned few layer graphene bottom gates and a global back gate.
@article{arxiv.1703.05631,
title = {Few-layer graphene patterned bottom gates for van der Waals heterostructures},
author = {Martin Drienovsky and Andreas Sandner and Christian Baumgartner and Ming-Hao Liu and Takashi Taniguchi and Kenji Watanabe and Klaus Richter and Dieter Weiss and Jonathan Eroms},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1703.05631},
year = {2017}
}