Communications of the ACM
2-D Electronics Take a Step Forward
An experimental image produced by Oak Ridge National Laboratory shows defects at the 60-degree grain boundaries in two-dimensional samples of molybdenum disulfide (the molybdenum atoms are cyan and the sulfur atoms are orange and yellow).
Credit: Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Scientists at Rice University and Oak Ridge National Laboratory were able to grow large, high-quality, atomically thin molybdenum disulfide (MDS) sheets in a chemical vapor deposition furnace. The researchers also imaged the atomic structures and were able to analyze their characteristics. They hope to join MDS, a semiconductor, with graphene, which has no band gap, and hexagonal boron nitride, an insulator, to form field-effect transistors, integrated logic circuits, photodetectors, and flexible optoelectronics.
"For truly atomic circuitry, this is important," says Jun Lou, a lead investigator who is a professor in Rice's Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science Department. "If we get this material to work, then we will have a set of materials to play with for complete, complicated devices."
The team sees many possible ways of combining the materials, in two-dimensional layers as well as in three-dimensional (3D) stacks. "Now we have the opportunity to build 3D crystals with different compositions," Lou notes.
From Rice University
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