Pick-up and assembling of chemically sensitive van der Waals heterostructures using dry cryogenic exfoliation

Abstract

Assembling atomic layers of van der Waals materials (vdW) combines the physics of two materials, offering opportunities for novel functional devices. Realization of this has been possible because of advancements in nanofabrication processes which often involve chemical processing of the materials under study; this can be detrimental to device performance. To address this issue, we have developed a modified micro-manipulator setup for cryogenic exfoliation, pick up, and transfer of vdW materials to assemble heterostructures. We use the glass transition of a polymer PDMS to cleave a flake into two, followed by its pick-up and drop to form pristine twisted junctions. To demonstrate the potential of the technique, we fabricated twisted heterostructure of Bi${}_2$Sr${}_2$CaCu${}_2$O${}_{8+x}$ (BSCCO), a van der Waals high-temperature cuprate superconductor. We also employed this method to re-exfoliate NbSe${}_2$ and make twisted heterostructure. Transport measurements of the fabricated devices indicate the high quality of the artificial twisted interface. In addition, we extend this cryogenic exfoliation method for other vdW materials, offering an effective way of assembling heterostructures and twisted junctions with pristine interfaces.

References in corpus (11)

• Two Dimensional Atomic Crystals
• 2D materials and van der Waals heterostructures
• Scale-free structural organization of oxygen interstitials in La2CuO4+y
• Berry curvature dipole senses topological transition in a moiré superlattice
• Dry release transfer of graphene and few-layer h-BN by utilizing thermoplasticity of polypropylene carbonate for fabricating edge-contact-free van der Waals heterostructures
• Gate-tunable heavy fermions in a moiré Kondo lattice
• High-T_c superconductivity in ultrathin Bi_2Sr_2CaCu_2O_8+x down to halfunit-cell thickness by protection with graphene
• High-temperature Josephson diode
• Stability of exfoliated Bi${}_2$Sr${}_2$Dy${}_x$Ca${}_{1-x}$Cu${}_2$O${}_{8+\delta }$ studied by Raman microscopy
• Encapsulating high-temperature superconducting twisted van der Waals heterostructures blocks detrimental effects of disorder
• On-demand local modification of high-$T_{\text{c}}$ superconductivity in few unit-cell thick Bi${}_2$Sr${}_2$CaCu${}_2$O${}_{8+\delta }$

Cited by in corpus (4)

• Cuprate Twistronics for Quantum Hardware
• Evolution of dissipative regimes in atomically thin ${\text{Bi}}_2{\text{Sr}}_2{\text{CaCu}}_2{\text{O}}_{8+x}$ superconductor
• Preserving the Josephson Coupling of Twisted Cuprate Junctions via Tailored Silicon Nitride Circuits Boards
• Van der Waals devices for surface-sensitive experiments