Synthesis of Air-Stable, Atomically Thin Heavy Metals through Confinement Heteroepitaxy

ORAL

Abstract

Atomically thin heavy metals (Pb, Bi) are known to exhibit strong Rashba spin orbit coupling suggesting their viability in spintronics; however, their instability in ambient precludes device integration. We demonstrate the synthesis of centimeter-scale, two-dimensional Pb, Bi, and PbGa via confinement heteroepitaxy (CHet) which leverages the interface between epitaxial graphene and silicon carbide to assemble atomically thin, air-stable 2D metals. Through ex-situ microscopy, spectroscopy, diffraction, and transport characterization of these 2D heavy metals, we find > 90% 2D-metal coverage, unique spectroscopic features in Raman, evidence of ~500meV spin splitting in 2D-Pb, and superconductivity up to 3K in 2D-PbGa.

*This work is supported by NSF award DMR2002651 and the Penn State MRSEC Center for Nanoscale Science via NSF award DMR2011839.

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Publication: Yang K. et al. Momentum-Space Spin Antivortex and Spin Transport in Monolayer Pb. Phys. Rev. Lett. 128, 166601. https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.128.166601
Vera A. et al. Emergent Spin Phenomena in Air-Stable, Atomically Thin Lead. arXiv. Preprint. https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2205.06859

Presenters

  • Alexander Vera

    • Pennsylvania State University

Authors

  • Alexander Vera

    • Pennsylvania State University

  • Wilson J Yanez

    • Pennsylvania State University

  • Boyang Zheng

    • Pennsylvania State University

  • Cequn Li

    • Pennsylvania State University

  • Furkan Turker

    • Pennsylvania State University

  • Chengye Dong

    • Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Pennsylvania State University
    • Pennsylvania State University
    • Penn State University

  • Yuanxi Wang

    • University of North Texas

  • Hesham El-Sherif

    • McMaster University

  • Gopi Krishnan

    • Pennsylvania State University
    • McMaster University

  • Isabela Galoustian

    • Emory University

  • Maxwell Wetherington

    • Penn State University
    • Pennsylvania State University

  • Roland Koch

    • Lawrence Berkeley National Labs
    • Lawrence Berkeley National Lab
    • Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

  • Eli Rotenberg

    • Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
    • Advanced Light Source, Lawrence Berkeley National Lab

  • Zheng Gai

    • Oak Ridge National Lab

  • Arthur P Baddorf

    • Oak Ridge National Laboratory

  • An-Ping Li

    • Oak Ridge National Lab

  • Nabil Bassim

    • McMaster University

  • Jun Zhu

    • Pennsylvania State University

  • Vincent H Crespi

    • Pennsylvania State University

  • Nitin Samarth

    • Pennsylvania State University
    • The Pennsylvania State University

  • Joshua A Robinson

    • Pennsylvania State University