Fabrication of suspended few-layer black phosphorus nanopores and nanoribbons via electron beam nanosculpting

ORAL

Abstract

We present nanopores, nanoribbons, and nanogaps in suspended few-layer black phosphorus (BP) flakes that have been realized using in situ transmission electron microscope nanosculpting. Few-layer BP flakes were first produced through a liquid exfoliation procedure and suspended on holey SiN$_{x}$ membranes. We investigate the structural characteristics of few-layer BP and further show the time-dependent properties of various nanostructures under exposure to an electron beam. It is shown that high-resolution structural modification of nanopores and nanoribbons can be achieved with nanometer-scale precision on timescales of a few minutes. We also used density functional theory to provide a model for the observed anisotropy in edge formation by computing energy barriers for various edge geometries.

Authors

  • Paul Das

    • Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Pennsylvania
    • Univ of Pennsylvania
    • UPenn
  • Gopinath Danda

    • Department of Electrical and Systems Engineering, University of Pennsylvania
  • William Parkin

    • Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Pennsylvania
  • Andrew Cupo

    • Department of Physics, Applied Physics, and Astronomy, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
  • Neerav Kharche

    • Department of Physics, Applied Physics, and Astronomy, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
  • Xi Ling

    • Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
  • Shengxi Huang

    • Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
  • Mildred Dresselhaus

    • Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
  • Vincent Meunier

    • Department of Physics, Applied Physics, and Astronomy, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
  • Marija Drndic

    • Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Pennsylvania