Aligned Stacking of Nanopatterned 2D materials -- Towards 3D printing at atomic resolution

Abstract

Two-dimensional materials can be combined by placing individual layers on top of each other, so that they are bound only by their van der Waals interaction. The sequence of layers can be chosen arbitrarily, enabling an essentially atomic-level control of the material and thereby a wide choice of properties along one dimension. However, simultaneous control over the structure in the in-plane directions is so far still rather limited. Here, we combine spatially controlled modifications of 2D materials, using focused electron irradiation or electron beam induced etching, with the layer-by-layer assembly of van der Waals heterostructures. A novel assembly process makes it possible to structure each layer with an arbitrary pattern prior to the assembly into the heterostructure. Moreover, it enables a stacking of the layers with accurate lateral alignment, with an accuracy of currently 10nm, under observation in an electron microscope. Together, this enables the fabrication of almost arbitrary 3D structures with highest spatial resolution.

The supplementary video is part of the source folder

References in corpus (10)

• Two Dimensional Atomic Crystals
• 2D materials and van der Waals heterostructures
• Boron nitride substrates for high-quality graphene electronics
• Cross-sectional imaging of individual layers and buried interfaces of graphene-based heterostructures and superlattices
• Recent progress in the assembly of nanodevices and van der Waals heterostructures by deterministic placement of 2D materials
• Electron beam nanosculpting of suspended graphene sheets
• Twist-controlled resonant tunnelling in graphene-boron nitride-graphene heterostructures
• Nanofluidics coming of age
• Tunable Coulomb blockade in nanostructured graphene
• Manipulating low-dimensional materials down to the level of single atoms with electron irradiation