Yajun Fu

Integrated digital inverters based on two-dimensional anisotropic ReS2 field-effect transistors

Semiconducting two-dimensional transition metal dichalcogenides are emerging as top candidates for post-silicon electronics. While most of them exhibit isotropic behaviour, lowering the lattice symmetry could induce anisotropic properties, which are both scientifically interesting and potentially useful. Here we present atomically thin rhenium disulfide (ReS2) flakes with unique distorted 1T structure, which exhibit in-plane anisotropic properties. We fabricated monolayer and few-layer ReS2 field-effect transistors, which exhibit competitive performance with large current on/off ratios (∼107) and low subthreshold swings (100 mV per decade). The observed anisotropic ratio along two principle axes reaches 3.1, which is the highest among all known two-dimensional semiconducting materials. Furthermore, we successfully demonstrated an integrated digital inverter with good performance by utilizing two ReS2 anisotropic field-effect transistors, suggesting the promising implementation of large-scale two-dimensional logic circuits. Our results underscore the unique properties of two-dimensional semiconducting materials with low crystal symmetry for future electronic applications.

Broadband Photovoltaic Detectors Based on an Atomically Thin Heterostructure

van der Waals junctions of two-dimensional materials with an atomically sharp interface open up unprecedented opportunities to design and study functional heterostructures. Semiconducting transition metal dichalcogenides have shown tremendous potential for future applications due to their unique electronic properties and strong light-matter interaction. However, many important optoelectronic applications, such as broadband photodetection, are severely hindered by their limited spectral range and reduced light absorption. Here, we present a p-g-n heterostructure formed by sandwiching graphene with a gapless band structure and wide absorption spectrum in an atomically thin p-n junction to overcome these major limitations. We have successfully demonstrated a MoS2-graphene-WSe2 heterostructure for broadband photodetection in the visible to short-wavelength infrared range at room temperature that exhibits competitive device performance, including a specific detectivity of up to 10(11) Jones in the near-infrared region. Our results pave the way toward the implementation of atomically thin heterostructures for broadband and sensitive optoelectronic applications.

Raman vibrational spectra of bulk to monolayer ReS2 with lower symmetry

Lattice structure and symmetry of two-dimensional (2D) layered materials are of key importance to their fundamental mechanical, thermal, electronic and optical properties. Raman spectroscopy, as a convenient and nondestructive tool, however has its limitations on identifying all symmetry allowing Raman modes and determining the corresponding crystal structure of 2D layered materials with high symmetry like graphene and MoS2. Due to lower structural symmetry and extraordinary weak interlayer coupling of ReS2, we successfully identified all 18 first-order Raman active modes for bulk and monolayer ReS2. Without van der Waals (vdW) correction, our local density approximation (LDA) calculations successfully reproduce all the Raman modes. Our calculations also suggest no surface reconstruction effect and the absence of low frequency rigid-layer Raman modes below 100 cm-1. As a result, combining with Raman and LDA thus provides a general approach for studying the vibrational and structural properties of 2D layered materials with lower symmetry.

Gate-tunable negative longitudinal magnetoresistance in the predicted type-II Weyl semimetal WTe2

The progress in exploiting new electronic materials has been a major driving force in solid-state physics. As a new state of matter, a Weyl semimetal (WSM), in particular a type-II WSM, hosts Weyl fermions as emergent quasiparticles and may harbour novel electrical transport properties. Nevertheless, such a type-II WSM material has not been experimentally observed. In this work, by performing systematic magneto-transport studies on thin films of a predicted material candidate WTe2, we observe notable negative longitudinal magnetoresistance, which can be attributed to the chiral anomaly in WSM. This phenomenon also exhibits strong planar orientation dependence with the absence along the tungsten chains, consistent with the distinctive feature of a type-II WSM. By applying a gate voltage, we demonstrate that the Fermi energy can be in-situ tuned through the Weyl points via the electric field effect. Our results may open opportunities for implementing new electronic applications, such as field-effect chiral devices.

Room temperature high-detectivity mid-infrared photodetectors based on black arsenic phosphorus

Black arsenic phosphorus–based photodetectors sense detect long-wave mid-infrared light with high detectivity at room temperature. The mid-infrared (MIR) spectral range, pertaining to important applications, such as molecular “fingerprint” imaging, remote sensing, free space telecommunication, and optical radar, is of particular scientific interest and technological importance. However, state-of-the-art materials for MIR detection are limited by intrinsic noise and inconvenient fabrication processes, resulting in high-cost photodetectors requiring cryogenic operation. We report black arsenic phosphorus–based long-wavelength IR photodetectors, with room temperature operation up to 8.2 μm, entering the second MIR atmospheric transmission window. Combined with a van der Waals heterojunction, room temperature–specific detectivity higher than 4.9 × 109 Jones was obtained in the 3- to 5-μm range. The photodetector works in a zero-bias photovoltaic mode, enabling fast photoresponse and low dark noise. Our van der Waals heterojunction photodetectors not only exemplify black arsenic phosphorus as a promising candidate for MIR optoelectronic applications but also pave the way for a general strategy to suppress 1/f noise in photonic devices.

The positive piezoconductive effect in graphene

As the thinnest conductive and elastic material, graphene is expected to play a crucial role in post-Moore era. Besides applications on electronic devices, graphene has shown great potential for nano-electromechanical systems. While interlayer interactions play a key role in modifying the electronic structures of layered materials, no attention has been given to their impact on electromechanical properties. Here we report the positive piezoconductive effect observed in suspended bi- and multi-layer graphene. The effect is highly layer number dependent and shows the most pronounced response for tri-layer graphene. The effect, and its dependence on the layer number, can be understood as resulting from the strain-induced competition between interlayer coupling and intralayer transport, as confirmed by the numerical calculations based on the non-equilibrium Greens function method. Our results enrich the understanding of graphene and point to layer number as a powerful tool for tuning the electromechanical properties of graphene for future applications.

Observation of bubble-involving spontaneous gas dissolution in superheated Al alloy melt

We present a direct visualization of spontaneous gas dissolution in Al-7.7 mass% Ca eutectic alloy melt during superheating using high-brilliance synchrotron X-ray imaging. A bubble-involving gas dissolution process was observed, which can be understood within the framework of adsorption-diffusion-dissolution mechanism. The heterogenous nucleation and combined effect of hydrogen diffusivity and solubility results in the growth of individual bubbles in a stochastic way with Gaussian distribution. This also applies to the behavior of group bubbles in early stage, while which in final stage can be treated as reverse Ostwald ripening dominated by Lifshitz-Slyozov-Wagner diffusion mechanism when pure diffusive condition is satisfied.

Gated tuned superconductivity and phonon softening in monolayer and bilayer MoS 2

Superconductors at the atomic two-dimensional limit are the focus of an enduring fascination in the condensed matter community. This is because, with reduced dimensions, the effects of disorders, fluctuations, and correlations in superconductors become particularly prominent at the atomic two-dimensional limit; thus such superconductors provide opportunities to tackle tough theoretical and experimental challenges. Here, based on the observation of ultrathin two-dimensional superconductivity in monolayer and bilayer molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) with electric-double-layer gating, we found that the critical sheet carrier density required to achieve superconductivity in a monolayer MoS2 flake can be as low as 0.55 × 1014 cm−2, which is much lower than those values in the bilayer and thicker cases in previous report and also our own observations. Further comparison of the phonon dispersion obtained by ab initio calculations indicated that the phonon softening of the acoustic modes around the M point plays a key role in the gate-induced superconductivity within the Bardeen–Cooper–Schrieffer theory framework. This result might help enrich the understanding of two-dimensional superconductivity with electric-double-layer gating.Superconductivity: Tunable superconductivity in two-dimensional materialsExperiments show that a softening of phonon modes aids gate-induced superconductivity in two-dimensional materials. As a material’s dimensions are reduced, the role of disorder and electronic correlations in defining the electronic properties become more prominent, and as the density of charge carriers is much lower, superconductivity is less likely to emerge. An international team of researchers led by Feng Mio and Baigeng Wang from Nanjing University and Harold Hwang from SLAC National Accelerator laboratory and Stanford University use an ionic liquid-based setup, which allows for high gate voltages to be applied, to demonstrate gate-induced superconductivity in monolayers and bilayers of a transition metal dichalcogenide. They show that a softening of the acoustic phonon modes allows for superconductivity to be realized in single layers with a lower carrier density than that needed in multilayers.

Gate-Induced Interfacial Superconductivity in 1T-SnSe2

Layered metal chalcogenide materials provide a versatile platform to investigate emergent phenomena and two-dimensional (2D) superconductivity at/near the atomically thin limit. In particular, gate-induced interfacial superconductivity realized by the use of an electric-double-layer transistor (EDLT) has greatly extended the capability to electrically induce superconductivity in oxides, nitrides, and transition metal chalcogenides and enable one to explore new physics, such as the Ising pairing mechanism. Exploiting gate-induced superconductivity in various materials can provide us with additional platforms to understand emergent interfacial superconductivity. Here, we report the discovery of gate-induced 2D superconductivity in layered 1T-SnSe2, a typical member of the main-group metal dichalcogenide (MDC) family, using an EDLT gating geometry. A superconducting transition temperature Tc ≈ 3.9 K was demonstrated at the EDL interface. The 2D nature of the superconductivity therein was further confirmed based on (1) a 2D Tinkham description of the angle-dependent upper critical field Bc2, (2) the existence of a quantum creep state as well as a large ratio of the coherence length to the thickness of superconductivity. Interestingly, the in-plane Bc2 approaching zero temperature was found to be 2-3 times higher than the Pauli limit, which might be related to an electric field-modulated spin-orbit interaction. Such results provide a new perspective to expand the material matrix available for gate-induced 2D superconductivity and the fundamental understanding of interfacial superconductivity.

Analog Circuit Applications Based on Ambipolar Graphene/MoTe2 Vertical Transistors

The current integrated circuit (IC) technology based on conventional MOS-FET (metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistor) is approaching the limit of miniaturization with increasing demand on energy. Several analog circuit applications based on graphene FETs have been demonstrated with less components comparing to the conventional technology. However, low on/off current ratio caused by the semimetal nature of graphene has severely hindered its practical applications. Here we report a graphene/MoTe2 van der Waals (vdW) vertical transistor with V-shaped ambipolar field effect transfer characteristics to overcome this challenge. Investigations on temperature dependence of transport properties reveal that gate tunable asymmetric barriers of the devices are account for the ambipolar behaviors. Furthermore, to demonstrate the analog circuit applications of such vdW vertical transistors, we successfully realized output polarity controllable (OPC) amplifier and frequency doubler. These results enable vdW heterojunction based electronic devices to open up new possibilities for wide perspective in telecommunication field.