Ultrathin crystals of bismuth grown inside atomically-smooth van der Waals materials

POSTER

Abstract

Confining materials to two-dimensional forms changes the behavior of electrons and enables new devices. However, most materials are challenging to produce as uniform thin crystals. We present a new synthesis approach where crystals are grown in a nanoscale mold defined by atomically-flat van der Waals (vdW) materials. By heating and compressing bismuth in a vdW mold made of hexagonal boron nitride, we produce ultrathin crystals less than 10 nanometers thick with flat surfaces. Cryogenic measurements of the ultrathin bismuth demonstrate high quality electronic transport exhibiting quantum oscillations and a 10x larger residual resistance ratio compared to thin films grown by molecular beam epitaxy. Our vdW-molded growth technique enables intrinsic transport studies of ultrathin bismuth, and also holds promise to achieve two-dimensional bismuth, a large-gap 2D topological insulator. Moreover, this approach provides a general way to synthesize ultrathin forms of non-vdW materials that are directly integrated into a vdW heterostructure.

*This talk is based upon work supported by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research under award number FA9550-21-1-0165. Additional support comes from the National Science Foundation (NSF) Materials Research Science and Engineering Center (MRSEC) program through the UC Irvine Center for Complex and Active Materials (DMR-2011967) Seed Program

Presenters

  • Laisi Chen

    • University of California, Irvine

Authors

  • Laisi Chen

    • University of California, Irvine

  • Amy X Wu

    • University of California, Irvine

  • Naol Tulu

    • University of California, Irvine

  • Joshua Wang

    • University of California, Irvine

  • Adrian Juanson

    • California State University Long Beach

  • Kenji Watanabe

    • National Institute for Materials Science
    • Research Center for Functional Materials, National Institute of Materials Science
    • Research Center for Functional Materials, National Institute for Materials Science, 1-1 Namiki, Tsukuba 305-044, Japan
    • NIMS
    • Research Center for Functional Materials, National Institute for Materials Science
    • National Institute for Materials Science, Japan
    • Research Center for Functional Materials, National Institute for Materials Science, Tsukuba, Japan
    • NIMS Japan

  • Takashi Taniguchi

    • National Institute for Materials Science
    • Kyoto Univ
    • International Center for Materials Nanoarchitectonics, National Institute of Materials Science
    • Kyoto University
    • International Center for Materials Nanoarchitectonics, National Institute for Materials Science, 1-1 Namiki, Tsukuba 305-044, Japan
    • International Center for Materials Nanoarchitectonics, National Institute for Materials Science
    • National Institute for Materials Science, Japan
    • National Institute For Materials Science
    • NIMS
    • National Institute for Material Science
    • International Center for Materials Nanoarchitectonics, National Institute for Materials Science, Tsukuba, Japan
    • NIMS Japan

  • Yinong Zhou

    • University of California, Irvine

  • Chaitanya A Gadre

    • University of California, Irvine

  • Marshall A Campbell

    • University of California, Irvine

  • Luis A Jauregui

    • University of California, Irvine

  • Xiaoqing Pan

    • University of California, Irvine

  • Ruqian Wu

    • University of California, Irvine

  • Javier Sanchez-Yamagishi

    • University of California, Irvine