Revealing Strain-Induced Effects in Ultrathin Heterostructures at the Nanoscale

Two-dimensional materials are being increasingly studied, particularly for flexible and wearable technologies because of their inherent thickness and flexibility. Crucially, one aspect where our understanding is still limited is on the effect of mechanical strain, not on individual sheets of materials, but when stacked together as heterostructures in devices. In this paper, we demonstrate the use of Kelvin probe microscopy in capturing the influence of uniaxial tensile strain on the band-structures of graphene and WS₂ (mono- and multilayered) based heterostructures at high resolution. We report a major advance in strain characterization tools through enabling a single-shot capture of strain defined changes in a heterogeneous system at the nanoscale, overcoming the limitations (materials, resolution, and substrate effects) of existing techniques such as optical spectroscopy. Using this technique, we observe that the work-functions of graphene and WS₂ increase as a function of strain, which we attribute to the Fermi level lowering from increased p-doping. We also extract the nature of the interfacial heterojunctions and find that they get strongly modulated from strain. We observe that the strain-enhanced charge transfer with the substrate plays a dominant role, causing the heterostructures to behave differently from two-dimensional materials in their isolated forms

Filamentary High-Resolution Electrical Probes for Nanoengineering

Confining electric fields to a nanoscale region is challenging yet crucial for applications such as high-resolution probing of electrical properties of materials and electric-field manipulation of nanoparticles. State-of-the-art techniques involving atomic force microscopy typically have a lateral resolution limit of tens of nanometers due to limitations in the probe geometry and stray electric fields that extend over space. Engineering the probes is the most direct approach to improving this resolution limit. However, current methods to fabricate high-resolution probes, which can effectively confine the electric fields laterally, involve expensive and sophisticated probe manipulation, which has limited the use of this approach. Here, we demonstrate that nanoscale phase switching of configurable thin films on probes can result in high-resolution electrical probes. These configurable coatings can be both germanium–antimony–tellurium (GST) as well as amorphous-carbon, materials known to undergo electric field-induced nonvolatile, yet reversible switching. By forming a localized conductive filament through phase transition, we demonstrate a spatial resolution of electrical field beyond the geometrical limitations of commercial platinum probes (i.e., an improvement of ∼48%). We then utilize these confined electric fields to manipulate nanoparticles with single nanoparticle precision via dielectrophoresis. Our results advance the field of nanomanufacturing and metrology with direct applications for pick and place assembly at the nanoscale

Chemical Vapor Deposition Growth of Two-Dimensional Monolayer Gallium Sulfide Crystals Using Hydrogen Reduction of Ga₂S₃

Two-dimensional gallium sulfide (GaS) crystals are synthesized by a simple and efficient ambient pressure chemical vapor deposition (CVD) method using a single-source precursor of Ga₂S₃. The synthesized GaS structures involve triangular monolayer domains and multilayer flakes with thickness of 1 and 15 nm, respectively. Regions of continuous films of GaS are also achieved with about 0.7 cm² uniform coverage. This is achieved by using hydrogen carrier gas and the horizontally placed SiO₂/Si substrates. Electron microscopy and spectroscopic measurements are used to characteristic the CVD-grown materials. This provides important insights into novel approaches for enlarging the domain size of GaS crystals and understanding of the growth mechanism using this precursor system

Reconfigurable Low-Emissivity Optical Coating Using Ultrathin Phase Change Materials

A method for controlling the optical properties of a solid-state film over a broad wavelength range is highly desirable and could have significant commercial impact. One such application is smart glazing technology where near-infrared solar radiation is harvested in the winter and reflected it in the summeran impossibility for materials with fixed thermal and optical properties. Here, we experimentally demonstrate the first spectrally tunable, low-emissivity coating using a chalcogenide-based phase-change material (Ge20Te80), which can modulate the solar heat gain of a window while maintaining neutral-coloration and constant transmission of light at visible wavelengths. We additionally demonstrate the controlled transfer of absorbed near-infrared energy to far-infrared radiation, which can be used to heat a building’s interior and show fast, sub-millisecond switching using transparent electrical heaters integrated on glass substrates. These combined properties result in a smart window that is efficient and aesthetically pleasingcrucial for successful adoption of green technology

Reconfigurable Low-Emissivity Optical Coating Using Ultrathin Phase Change Materials

A method for controlling the optical properties of a solid-state film over a broad wavelength range is highly desirable and could have significant commercial impact. One such application is smart glazing technology where near-infrared solar radiation is harvested in the winter and reflected it in the summeran impossibility for materials with fixed thermal and optical properties. Here, we experimentally demonstrate the first spectrally tunable, low-emissivity coating using a chalcogenide-based phase-change material (Ge20Te80), which can modulate the solar heat gain of a window while maintaining neutral-coloration and constant transmission of light at visible wavelengths. We additionally demonstrate the controlled transfer of absorbed near-infrared energy to far-infrared radiation, which can be used to heat a building’s interior and show fast, sub-millisecond switching using transparent electrical heaters integrated on glass substrates. These combined properties result in a smart window that is efficient and aesthetically pleasingcrucial for successful adoption of green technology