Related papers: Atomically clean free-standing two-dimensional mat…
Surface impurities and contamination often seriously degrade the properties of two-dimensional materials such as graphene. To remove contamination, thermal annealing is commonly used. We present a comparative analysis of annealing…
We report free-standing atomic crystals that are strictly 2D and can be viewed as individual atomic planes pulled out of bulk crystals or as unrolled single-wall nanotubes. By using micromechanical cleavage, we have prepared and studied a…
Efforts aimed at scaling fabrication processes to the level of single atoms, dubbed atom-by-atom fabrication or atomic fabrication, invariably encounter the obstacle of atomic scale cleanliness. When considering atomic fabrication,…
Access to intrinsic properties of a 2D material is challenging due to the absence of a bulk that would dominate over surface contamination, and this lack of bulk also precludes effective conventional cleaning methods that are almost always…
Heterostructures formed by stacking layered materials require atomically clean interfaces. However, contaminants are usually trapped between the layers, aggregating into blisters. We report a process to remove such blisters, resulting in…
Two-dimensional (2D) materials provide extraordinary opportunities for exploring phenomena arising in atomically thin crystals. Beginning with the first isolation of graphene, mechanical exfoliation has been a key to provide high-quality 2D…
The surface of ultra-thin materials plays a crucial role in determining the properties. This is particularly important in two-dimensional (2D) materials where the surface-bulk distinction is no longer present. While mechanical cleaning of…
We present helium atom micro-diffraction as an ideal technique for characterization of 2D materials due to its ultimate surface sensitivity combined with sub-micron spatial resolution. Thermal energy neutral helium scatters from the valence…
Two-dimensional (2D) materials have garnered significant attention in recent years due to their atomically thin structure and unique electronic and optoelectronic properties. To harness their full potential for applications in…
Two-dimensional (2D) transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs), such as MoS2, have the potential to be widely used in electronic devices and sensors due to their high carrier mobility and tunable band structure. In 2D TMD devices, surface and…
While freestanding clean graphene is essential for various applications, existing technologies for removing the polymer layer after transfer of graphene to the desired substrate still leave significant contaminations behind. We discovered a…
Atomically thin 2D materials span the common components of electronic circuits as metals, semi-conductors, and insulators, and can manifest correlated phases such as superconductivity, charge density waves, and magnetism. An ongoing…
Neutral-atom quantum hardware has emerged as a promising platform for programmable many-body physics. In this work, we develop and validate a practical framework for extracting thermodynamic properties of materials using such hardware. As a…
Si(100) surfaces were prepared by wet-chemical etching followed by 0.3-1.5keV Ar ion sputtering, either at elevated or room temperature. After a brief anneal under ultrahigh vacuum conditions, the resulting surfaces were examined by…
Investigation on oxidation resistance of two-dimensional (2D) materials is critical for many of their applications, because 2D materials could have higher oxidation kinetics than their bulk counterparts due to predominant surface atoms and…
Precision and chip contamination-free placement of two-dimensional (2D) materials is expected to accelerate both the study of fundamental properties and novel device functionality. Current transfer methods of 2D materials onto an arbitrary…
Transition metal di-iodides such as FeI2, NiI2 and CoI2 are an emerging class of 2D magnets exhibiting rich and diverse magnetic behaviour, but their study at the monolayer limit has been severely hindered by fabrication challenges due to…
The modification of electronic band structures and the subsequent tuning of electrical, optical, and thermal material properties is a central theme in the engineering and fundamental understanding of solid-state systems. In this scenario,…
By stacking various two-dimensional (2D) atomic crystals [1] on top of each other, it is possible to create multilayer heterostructures and devices with designed electronic properties [2-5]. However, various adsorbates become trapped…
Diffraction of atoms from surfaces provides detailed insights into structures, interactions, and dynamical processes. However, currently the method is limited to measurements in reflection - diffraction through materials has only been…