Chanyeol Choi

Remote epitaxy through graphene enables two-dimensional material-based layer transfer

Epitaxy—the growth of a crystalline material on a substrate—is crucial for the semiconductor industry, but is often limited by the need for lattice matching between the two material systems. This strict requirement is relaxed for van der Waals epitaxy, in which epitaxy on layered or two-dimensional (2D) materials is mediated by weak van der Waals interactions, and which also allows facile layer release from 2D surfaces. It has been thought that 2D materials are the only seed layers for van der Waals epitaxy. However, the substrates below 2D materials may still interact with the layers grown during epitaxy (epilayers), as in the case of the so-called wetting transparency documented for graphene. Here we show that the weak van der Waals potential of graphene cannot completely screen the stronger potential field of many substrates, which enables epitaxial growth to occur despite its presence. We use density functional theory calculations to establish that adatoms will experience remote epitaxial registry with a substrate through a substrate–epilayer gap of up to nine ångströms; this gap can accommodate a monolayer of graphene. We confirm the predictions with homoepitaxial growth of GaAs(001) on GaAs(001) substrates through monolayer graphene, and show that the approach is also applicable to InP and GaP. The grown single-crystalline films are rapidly released from the graphene-coated substrate and perform as well as conventionally prepared films when incorporated in light-emitting devices. This technique enables any type of semiconductor film to be copied from underlying substrates through 2D materials, and then the resultant epilayer to be rapidly released and transferred to a substrate of interest. This process is particularly attractive in the context of non-silicon electronics and photonics, where the ability to re-use the graphene-coated substrates allows savings on the high cost of non-silicon substrates.

Graphene Q-switched distributed feedback fiber lasers with narrow linewidth approaching the transform limit

A compact all-in-line graphene-based distributed feedback Bragg-grating fiber laser (GDFB-FL) with narrow linewidth of hundreds kHz is demonstrated and investigated in this study. Performing as an optical saturable absorber, graphene oscillates the initially kHz linewidth DFB-FL, and generates high-quality passively Q-switched pulses. Pumped with a 980 nm continuous-wave laser, the Q-switched GDFB-FL observes ~1 μs pulse durations, with pulse energies up to ~10 nJ and approaching the transform limit. The peak power is ~600 times higher than the original DFB-FL laser. By optimizing the cavity design and the graphene material, it is predicted that fast Q-switched pulses with more than MHz repetition rates and sub-100 ns pulse durations are achievable. Such transform-limited Q-switched GDFB-FLs with narrow linewidth of sub-MHz have long coherence length, good tunability, stability, compactness and robustness, with potential impact in optical coherent communications, metrology and sensing.

Enhanced interlayer neutral excitons and trions in trilayer van der Waals heterostructures

Vertically stacked van der Waals heterostructures constitute a promising platform for providing tailored band alignment with enhanced excitonic systems. Here, we report observations of neutral and charged interlayer excitons in trilayer WSe2–MoSe2–WSe2 van der Waals heterostructures and their dynamics. The addition of a WSe2 layer in the trilayer leads to significantly higher photoluminescence quantum yields and tunable spectral resonance compared to its bilayer heterostructures at cryogenic temperatures. The observed enhancement in the photoluminescence quantum yield is due to significantly larger electron–hole overlap and higher light absorbance in the trilayer heterostructure, supported via first-principles pseudopotential calculations based on spin-polarized density functional theory. We further uncover the temperature- and power-dependence, as well as time-resolved photoluminescence of the trilayer heterostructure interlayer neutral excitons and trions. Our study elucidates the prospects of manipulating light emission from interlayer excitons and designing atomic heterostructures from first-principles for optoelectronics.Optical physics: neutral and charged interlayer excitons in WSe 2 -MoSe 2 -WSe 2 heterostructuresTrilayer heterostructures have enhanced Coulomb interactions due to interlayer radiative recombination of neutral and charged excitons. A team led by Chee Wei Wong at the University of California, Los Angeles, fabricated type-II vertical van der Waals heterostructures consisting of a trilayer WSe2-MoSe2-WSe2 stack. Optimisation of the electronic band alignment by means of spin-polarized density functional theory allowed efficient interlayer radiative recombination. As a result, an order-of-magnitude increase of the photoluminescence quantum yield was obtained compared to bilayer heterostructures, and this was attributed to the larger electron-hole overlap and higher light absorbance in the trilayer stack, along with the formation of the neutral interlayer exciton. These results shed light to the underlying physics of light emission from interlayer excitons, and may pave the way to optimal design of van der Waals heterostructures with enhanced excitonic properties.

Controlled crack propagation for atomic precision handling of wafer-scale two-dimensional materials

Cleaving with a metal handle Using adhesive tape to pull off monolayers of two-dimensional (2D) materials is now a well-established approach. However, the flakes tend to be micrometer scale, and the creation of multilayer stacks for device application can be challenging and time consuming. Shim et al. show that monolayers of a variety of 2D materials, including molybdenum disulfide and hexagonal boron nitride, can be cleaved from multilayers grown as 5-centimeter-diameter wafers. The multilayer is capped with a nickel layer, which can be used to pull off the entire grown stack. The bottom of the stack is again capped with nickel, and a second round of cleaving leaves the monolayer on the bottom nickel layer. The monolayers could be transferred to other surfaces, which allowed the authors to make field-effect transistors with high charge-carrier mobilities. Science, this issue p. 665 Nickel overlayers transfer stress and enable cleavage of two-dimensional materials as monolayers at the wafer scale. Although flakes of two-dimensional (2D) heterostructures at the micrometer scale can be formed with adhesive-tape exfoliation methods, isolation of 2D flakes into monolayers is extremely time consuming because it is a trial-and-error process. Controlling the number of 2D layers through direct growth also presents difficulty because of the high nucleation barrier on 2D materials. We demonstrate a layer-resolved 2D material splitting technique that permits high-throughput production of multiple monolayers of wafer-scale (5-centimeter diameter) 2D materials by splitting single stacks of thick 2D materials grown on a single wafer. Wafer-scale uniformity of hexagonal boron nitride, tungsten disulfide, tungsten diselenide, molybdenum disulfide, and molybdenum diselenide monolayers was verified by photoluminescence response and by substantial retention of electronic conductivity. We fabricated wafer-scale van der Waals heterostructures, including field-effect transistors, with single-atom thickness resolution.

A graphene-enhanced Q-switched distributed feedback fiber laser

We report a 600-fold peak power enhancement of pulsed distributed feedback fiber lasers with monolayer graphene Q-switching. The tunable graphene-DFB fiber laser demonstrates sub-MHz linewidth and sub-μs pulses simultaneously, approaching the transform limit.