Rapid and reliable thickness identification of two-dimensional nanosheets using optical microscopy

Abstract

The physical and electronic properties of ultrathin two-dimensional (2D) layered nanomaterials are highly related to their thickness. Therefore, the rapid and accurate identification of single- and few- to multi-layer nanosheets is essential to their fundamental study and practical applications. Here, a universal optical method has been developed for simple, rapid and reliable identification of single- to quindecuple-layer (1L-15L) 2D nanosheets, including graphene, MoS2, WSe2 and TaS2, on Si substrates coated with 90 nm or 300 nm SiO2. The optical contrast differences between the substrates and 2D nanosheets with different layer numbers were collected and tabulated, serving as a standard reference, from which the layer number of a given nanosheet can be readily and reliably determined without using complex calculation nor expensive instrument. Our general optical identification method will facilitate the thickness-dependent study of various 2D nanomaterials, and expedite their research toward practical applications.

arXiv comment49 pages, 20 figures ACS Nano, 2013

References in corpus (13)

• Anomalous Lattice Vibrations of Single and Few-Layer MoS2
• Single-Layer MoS2 Phototransistors
• Making graphene visible
• The Shear Mode of Multi-Layer Graphene
• Interlayer breathing and shear modes in few-trilayer MoS2 and WSe2
• Rayleigh Imaging of Graphene and Graphene Layers
• Shear and Layer Breathing Modes in Multilayer MoS2
• Visibility of dichalcogenide nanolayers
• Simple approach for high-contrast optical imaging and characterization of graphene-based sheets
• Optical identification of atomically thin dichalcogenide crystals
• Colors Of Graphite On Silicon Dioxide
• Reliably Counting Atomic Planes of Few-Layer Graphene (n>4)
• Investigation of MoS2 and Graphene Nanosheets by Magnetic Force Microscopy

Cited by in corpus (59)

• Phonon and Raman scattering of two-dimensional transition metal dichalcogenides from monolayer, multilayer to bulk material
• Strain engineering in semiconducting two-dimensional crystals
• A Universal, Rapid Method for Clean Transfer of Nanostructures onto Various Substrates
• Charge-to-Spin Conversion by the Rashba-Edelstein Effect in 2D van der Waals Heterostructures up to Room Temperature
• Enhanced Light-Matter Interaction in Two-Dimensional Transition Metal Dichalcogenides
• Mechanics of freely-suspended ultrathin layered materials
• Deep-Learning-Based Image Segmentation Integrated with Optical Microscopy for Automatically Searching for Two-Dimensional Materials
• Electrical and Thermal Generation of Spin Currents by Magnetic Graphene
• Tunable electrochemistry with moiré flat bands and topological defects at twisted bilayer graphene
• Deep-Learning-Enabled Fast Optical Identification and Characterization of Two-Dimensional Materials
• Large Frequency Change with Thickness in Interlayer Breathing Mode - Significant Interlayer Interactions in Few Layer Black Phosphorus
• Understanding contact gating in Schottky barrier transistors from 2D channels
• Intelligent Identification of Two-Dimensional Structure by Machine-Learning Optical Microscopy
• Strain Engineering 2D MoS${}_2$ with Thin Film Stress Capping Layers
• Shubnikov-de Haas oscillations in optical conductivity of monolayer MoSe${}_2$
• Large-Scale Arrays of Single- and Few-Layer MoS2 Nanomechanical Resonators
• Electrotunable artificial molecules based on van der Waals heterostructures
• Thickness determination of MoS2, MoSe2, WS2 and WSe2 on transparent stamps used for deterministic transfer of 2D materials
• Enhanced Visibility of MoS2, MoSe2, WSe2 and Black Phosphorus: Making Optical Identification of 2D Semiconductors Easier
• Contact Research Strategy for Emerging Molybdenum Disulfide and Other Two-Dimensional Field-effect Transistors
• Controlled Growth of Large-Area Bilayer Tungsten Diselenides with Lateral P-N Junctions
• Resonance profiles of valley polarization in single-layer MoS${}_2$ and MoSe${}_2$
• Universal image segmentation for optical identification of 2D materials
• Thickness mapping and layer number identification of exfoliated van der Waals materials by Fourier imaging micro-ellipsometry
• Experimental Progress on Layered Topological Semimetals
• Optical contrast and refractive index of natural van der Waals heterostructure nanosheets of franckeite
• Thickness identification of thin InSe by optical microscopy methods
• Adhesion of 2D MoS${}_2$ to Graphite and Metal Substrates Measured by a Blister Test
• Quantum dot behavior in transition metal dichalcogenides nanostructures
• Electrodynamic models of 2D materials: can we match thin film and single sheet approaches?
• Optical-based thickness measurement of MoO${}_3$ nanosheets
• Strong dopant dependence of electric transport in ion-gated MoS2
• Bilayer h-BN Barriers for Tunneling Contacts in Fully-Encapsulated Monolayer $\mathbf{MoS}{\mathbf{e}}_2$ Field-Effect Transistors
• Thermal Sublimation: a Scalable and Controllable Thinning Method for the Fabrication of Few-Layer Black Phosphorus
• Possible charge-density-wave signatures in the anomalous resistivity of Li-intercalated multilayer MoS2
• Fully automated identification of 2D material samples
• Suspending Effect on Low-Frequency Charge Noise in Graphene Quantum Dot
• Liquid Metal Oxide-assisted Integration of High-k Dielectrics and Metal Contacts for Two-Dimensional Electronics
• Highly Accurate Determination of Heterogeneously Stacked Van-der-Waals Materials by Optical Microspectroscopy
• Endotaxial Stabilization of 2D Charge Density Waves with Long-range Order
• Optical microscopy-based thickness estimation in thin GaSe flakes
• Low-frequency Raman signature of Ag-intercalated few-layer MoS${}_2$
• Reliable and Broad-range Layer Identification of Au-assisted Exfoliated Large Area MoS${}_2$ and WS${}_2$ Using Reflection Spectroscopic Fingerprints
• Van der Waals functionalization of ultrahigh-Q silica microcavities for ${\chi }^{(2)}$-${\chi }^{(3)}$ hybrid nonlinear photonics
• Enhancing magneto-optic effects in two-dimensional magnets by thin-film interference
• A Facile Method for Precise Layer Number Identification of Two-Dimensional Materials through Optical Images
• Signature of multilayer graphene strain-controlled domain walls in quantum Hall effect
• Dephasing of Strong-Field-Driven Floquet States Revealed by Time- and Spectrum-Resolved Quantum-Path Interferometry
• Lithography-free electrical transport measurements on 2D materials by direct microprobing
• Spotting 2-D Atomic Layers on Aluminum Nitride Thin Films
• Interplay of Landau quantization and interminivalley scatterings in a weakly coupled moiré superlattice
• One-Dimensional Crystallographic Etching of Few-Layer WS${}_2$
• Excitonic interplay between surface polar III-nitride quantum wells and MoS${}_2$ monolayer
• Quantification of 2D Interfaces: Quality of heterostructures, and what is inside a nanobubble
• Ultrasonic Delamination Based Adhesion Testing for High-Throughput Assembly of van der Waals Heterostructures
• Blister Test to Measure the Out-of-Plane Shear Modulus of Few-Layer Graphene
• Identifying atomically thin crystals with diffusively reflected light
• Ubiquitous Antiparallel Domains in 2D Hexagonal Boron Nitride Uncovered by Interferometric Nonlinear Optical Imaging
• Optical microscope based universal parameter for identifying layer number in two-dimensional materials