Large-Scale Fabrication of Boron Nitride Nanosheets and Their Utilization in Polymeric Composites with Improved Thermal and Mechanical Properties

Graphene plasmons were predicted to possess ultra-strong field confinement and very low damping at the same time, enabling new classes of devices for deep subwavelength metamaterials, single-photon nonlinearities, extraordinarily strong light-matter interactions and nano-optoelectronic switches. While all of these great prospects require low damping, thus far strong plasmon damping was observed, with both impurity scattering and many-body effects in graphene proposed as possible explanations. With the advent of van der Waals heterostructures, new methods have been developed to integrate graphene with other atomically flat materials. In this letter we exploit near-field microscopy to image propagating plasmons in high quality graphene encapsulated between two films of hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN). We determine dispersion and particularly plasmon damping in real space. We find unprecedented low plasmon damping combined with strong field confinement, and identify the main damping channels as intrinsic thermal phonons in the graphene and dielectric losses in the h-BN. The observation and in-depth understanding of low plasmon damping is the key for the development of graphene nano-photonic and nano-optoelectronic devices.

Highly confined low-loss plasmons in graphene-boron nitride heterostructures

Two-dimensional (2D) materials have generated great interest in the past few years as a new toolbox for electronics. This family of materials includes, among others, metallic graphene, semiconducting transition metal dichalcogenides (such as MoS2), and insulating boron nitride. These materials and their heterostructures offer excellent mechanical flexibility, optical transparency, and favorable transport properties for realizing electronic, sensing, and optical systems on arbitrary surfaces. In this paper, we demonstrate a novel technology for constructing large-scale electronic systems based on graphene/molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) heterostructures grown by chemical vapor deposition. We have fabricated high-performance devices and circuits based on this heterostructure, where MoS2 is used as the transistor channel and graphene as contact electrodes and circuit interconnects. We provide a systematic comparison of the graphene/MoS2 heterojunction contact to more traditional MoS2-metal junctions, as well as a theoretical investigation, using density functional theory, of the origin of the Schottky barrier height. The tunability of the graphene work function with electrostatic doping significantly improves the ohmic contact to MoS2. These high-performance large-scale devices and circuits based on this 2D heterostructure pave the way for practical flexible transparent electronics.

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Graphene-MoS2 Hybrid Technology for Large-Scale Two-Dimensional Electronics

Memristive and nanoionic devices have recently emerged as leading candidates for neuromorphic computing architectures. While top-down fabrication based on conventional bulk materials has enabled many early neuromorphic devices and circuits, bottom-up approaches based on low-dimensional nanomaterials have shown novel device functionality that often better mimics a biological neuron. In addition, the chemical, structural and compositional tunability of low-dimensional nanomaterials coupled with the permutational flexibility enabled by van der Waals heterostructures offers significant opportunities for artificial neural networks. In this Review, we present a critical survey of emerging neuromorphic devices and architectures enabled by quantum dots, metal nanoparticles, polymers, nanotubes, nanowires, two-dimensional layered materials and van der Waals heterojunctions with a particular emphasis on bio-inspired device responses that are uniquely enabled by low-dimensional topology, quantum confinement and interfaces. We also provide a forward-looking perspective on the opportunities and challenges of neuromorphic nanoelectronic materials in comparison with more mature technologies based on traditional bulk electronic materials. This Review highlights the progress made towards the development of neuromorphic devices and architectures enabled by low-dimensional nanomaterials

Neuromorphic nanoelectronic materials

Two-dimensional boron is expected to exhibit various structural polymorphs, all being metallic. Additionally, its small atomic mass suggests strong electron–phonon coupling, which in turn can enable superconducting behavior. Here we perform first-principles analysis of electronic structure, phonon spectra, and electron–phonon coupling of selected 2D boron polymorphs and show that the most stable structures predicted to feasibly form on a metal substrate should also exhibit intrinsic phonon-mediated superconductivity, with estimated critical temperature in the range of Tc ≈ 10–20 K.

Can Two-Dimensional Boron Superconduct?

Intrinsic semimetallicity of graphene and silicene largely limits their applications in functional devices. Mixing carbon and silicon atoms to form two-dimensional (2D) silicon carbide (SixC1–x) sheets is promising to overcome this issue. Using first-principles calculations combined with the cluster expansion method, we perform a comprehensive study on the thermodynamic stability and electronic properties of 2D SixC1–x monolayers with 0 ≤ x ≤ 1. Upon varying the silicon concentration, the 2D SixC1–x presents two distinct structural phases, a homogeneous phase with well dispersed Si (or C) atoms and an in-plane hybrid phase rich in SiC domains. While the in-plane hybrid structure shows uniform semiconducting properties with widely tunable band gap from 0 to 2.87 eV due to quantum confinement effect imposed by the SiC domains, the homogeneous structures can be semiconducting or remain semimetallic depending on a superlattice vector which dictates whether the sublattice symmetry is topologically broken. More...

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Predicting Two-Dimensional Silicon Carbide Monolayers

Doped, substituted, or alloyed graphene is an attractive candidate for use as a tunable element of future nanomechanical and optoelectronic devices. Here we use the density functional theory, density functional tight binding, cluster expansion, and molecular dynamics to investigate the thermal stability and electronic properties of a binary 2D alloy of graphitic carbon and nitrogen (C1–xNx). The stability range naturally begins from graphene and must end before x = 1, where pure nitrogen rather forms molecular gas. This poses a compelling question of what highest x < 1 still permits stable 2D hexagonal lattice. Such upper limit on the nitrogen concentration that is achievable in a stable alloy can be found based on the phonon and molecular dynamics calculations. The stability switchover is predicted to between x = 1/3 (33.3%) and x = 3/8 (37.5%), and no stable hexagonal lattice two-dimensional CN alloys can exist at the N concentration of x = 3/8 (37.5%) and higher.

How Much N-Doping Can Graphene Sustain?

2D III-nitride materials have been receiving considerable attention recently due to their excellent physicochemical properties, such as high stability, wide and tunable bandgap, and magnetism. Therefore, 2D III-nitride materials can be applied in various fields, such as electronic and photoelectric devices, spin-based devices, and gas detectors. Although the developments of 2D h-BN materials have been successful, the fabrication of other 2D III-nitride materials, such as 2D h-AlN, h-GaN, and h-InN, are still far from satisfactory, which limits the practical applications of these materials. In this review, recent advances in the properties, growth methods, and potential applications of 2D III-nitride materials are summarized. The properties of the 2D III-nitride materials are mainly obtained by first-principles calculations because of the difficulties in the growth and characterizations of these materials. The discussion on the growth of 2D III-nitride materials is focused on 2D h-BN and h-AlN, as the developments of 2D h-GaN and h-InN are yet to be realized. Therefore, applications have been realized mostly based on the 2D h-BN materials; however, many potential applications are cited for the entire range of 2D III-nitride materials. Finally, future research directions and prospects in this field are also discussed.

2D III-Nitride Materials: Properties, Growth, and Applications.

Detailed first-principles density functional theory (DFT) computations were performed to investigate the geometries, the electronic, and the magnetic properties of both armchair-edged silicon carbide nanoribbons (aSiCNRs) and zigzag-edged silicon carbide nanoribbons (zSiCNRs) with Stone-Wales (SW) defects. SW defects in the center of aSiCNRs can remarkably reduce their band gaps, irrespective of the orientation of the defect, whereas zSiCNRs with SW defects in the center or at the edges exhibit degenerate energies of their ferromagnetic (FM) and antiferromagnetic (AFM) states, in which metallic and half-metallic behavior can be observed, respectively; half-metallic behavior can even be observed in both the FM and AFM states simultaneously. Further, it was shown that the formation energies of the SW defects in SiCNRs are orientation dependent, and the formation of edge defects is always favored over the formation of interior defects in zSiCNRs. The possible existence of SW defects in SiCNRs was further validated through exploring the kinetic process of their formation. These findings can be anticipated to provide valuable information in promoting the potential applications of SiC-based nanomaterials in multifunctional and spintronic nanodevices.

The Effects of the Formation of Stone–Wales Defects on the Electronic and Magnetic Properties of Silicon Carbide Nanoribbons: A First-Principles Investigation

Under first-principles computations, a simple strategy is identified to modulate the electronic and magnetic properties of zigzag graphene nanoribbons (zGNRs) This strategy takes advantage of the effect of the floating dipole field attached to zGNRs via π–π interactions This dipole field is induced by the acceptor/donor functional groups, which decorate the ladder-structure polydiacetylene derivatives with an excellent delocalized π-conjugated backbone By tuning the acceptor/donor groups, –C≡C– number, and zGNR width, greatly enriched electronic and magnetic properties, eg, spin gapless semiconducting, half-metallic, and metallic behaviors, with the antiferromagnetic−ferromagnetic conversion can be achieved in zGNRs with perfect, 57-reconstructed, and partially hydrogenated edge patterns

An Effective Approach to Achieve a Spin Gapless Semiconductor–Half‐Metal–Metal Transition in Zigzag Graphene Nanoribbons: Attaching A Floating Induced Dipole Field via π–π Interactions

Zhiming Shi

Papers

Predicting Two-Dimensional Silicon Carbide Monolayers

How Much N-Doping Can Graphene Sustain?

2D III-Nitride Materials: Properties, Growth, and Applications.

The Effects of the Formation of Stone–Wales Defects on the Electronic and Magnetic Properties of Silicon Carbide Nanoribbons: A First-Principles Investigation

An Effective Approach to Achieve a Spin Gapless Semiconductor–Half‐Metal–Metal Transition in Zigzag Graphene Nanoribbons: Attaching A Floating Induced Dipole Field via π–π Interactions