Electron beam-induced synthesis of hexagonal 1<i>H</i>-MoSe<sub>2</sub> from square β-FeSe decorated with Mo adatoms

ORAL

Abstract

Two-dimensional (2D) materials have generated interest in the scientific community because of the advanced electronic applications they might offer. Powerful electron beam microscopes have been used not only to evaluate the structures of these materials, but to manipulate them as well, by forming vacancies and nano-fragments or joining nano-islands together. In this presentation I will show a movie in which the electron beam in a scanning transmission electron microscope (STEM) can be used in yet another way: to mediate the synthesis of 2D 1H-MoSe2 from Mo-decorated 2D β-FeSe and simultaneously image the process on the atomic scale. Prior to committing microscope and materials resources to this project, the choice of reactants was first evaluated as a reasonable system for this proof of concept synthesis via quantum mechanical calculations. These calculations will be described in detail and include a methodology for finding a reaction path to forming a stable 1H-MoSe2 nucleation kernel within pure β-FeSe in which the pertinent energy barriers are smaller than the energy that can be supplied by a STEM electron beam.

*U.S. Department of Energy and McMinn Endowment at Vanderbilt University.
NERSC.
JST-ACCEL and JSPS KAKENHI.
Singapore National Research Foundation.

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Presenters

  • John Brehm

    • Department of Physics and Astronomy, Vanderbilt University

Authors

  • John Brehm

    • Department of Physics and Astronomy, Vanderbilt University

  • Junhao Lin

    • National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology

  • Jiadong Zhou

    • Center for Programmable Materials, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Nanyang Technological University

  • Hunter Sims

    • Department of Physics and Astronomy, Vanderbilt University
    • Physics and Astronomy, Vanderbilt University

  • Zheng Liu

    • Center for Programmable Materials, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Nanyang Technological University
    • Nanyang Technological University
    • School of Materials Science & Engineering, Nanyang Technological University
    • School of Materials Science and Engineering, Nanyang Technological University

  • Sokrates Pantelides

    • Department of Physics and Astronomy, Vanderbilt University
    • Vanderbilt University
    • Physics and Astronomy, Vanderbilt University
    • Department of Physics and Astronomy and Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Vanderbilt University
    • Dept. of Physics and Astronomy , Vanderbilt University
    • Vanderbilt Univ
    • Physics, Vanderbilt Univ

  • Kazu Suenaga

    • National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology
    • Nanomaterials Research Institute, AIST
    • National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST)