Effective Passivation of Black Phosphorus under Ambient Conditions

Two-dimensional (2D) materials have been studied widely owing to their outstanding properties since monolayer graphene was isolated in 2004. Especially, among 2D materials, phosphorene, a single atomic layer of black phosphorus (BP), has been highlighted for its electrical properties. This material can serve as a substitute for graphene, which has been revealed as a ???semi-metal???, in next-generation semiconductors. However, few-layer BP is prone to degradation under ambient conditions owing to its reactivity with oxygen and water, which results in the condensation of water droplets on the surface of the BP flakes. This causes charge transfer from the phosphorus atom to oxygen, resulting in the formation of phosphoric acid (oxide) and degrades the various properties of BP. Therefore, it is necessary to find passivation methods to prevent BP flakes from being degraded under ambient conditions. This review article deals with recent studies on passivation methods for BP and their performance against oxygen and water, effects on the electrical properties of BP, and the extent to how they protect BP

Synthesis and Properties of Two Dimensional Doped Transition Metal Dichalcogenides

Since graphene was discovered in 2004, two-dimensional (2D) materials have been actively studied. Especially, 2D transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs), such as MoS2 and WS2, have been the subject of significant research because of their exceptional optical, electrical, magnetic, catalytic, and morphological properties. Therefore, these materials are expected to be used in a variety of applications. Furthermore, tuning the properties of TMDs is essential to improve their performance and expand their applications. This review classifies the various doping methods of 2D TMDs, and it summarizes how the dopants interact with the materials and how the performance of the materials improves depending on the synthesis methods and the species of the dopants

Phase Transformation of Two-Dimensional Transition Metal Dichalcogenides

Transition metal dichalcogenide (TMD) materials have distinctive structures in comparison with other two-dimensional materials. TMD materials??? structure is held together by van der Waals and covalent intralayer interactions; consequently, TMDs exhibit multiple phases and properties depending on their structure. This article reviews some of the research currently being undertaken to control TMD phases to utilize their different properties. This review introduces some trials for changing the phase of TMDs

Formation Dynamics of Carbon Atomic Chain from Graphene by Electron Beam Irradiation

Carbon has numerous allotropes and various crystalline forms with full dimensionalities such as diamond, graphite, fullerenes, and carbon nanotubes leading a wide range of applications. Since the emerge of graphene consisting of a single atomic layer of carbon atoms, a fabrication of all-carbon-based device with combination of one-, two-, and three-dimensional carbons has become a hot issue. Here, we introduce an ultimate one-dimensional carbon atomic chain. Carbon atomic chains were experimentally created by removing atoms from monolayer graphene sheet under electron beam inside transmission electron microscope (TEM). A series of TEM images demonstrate the dynamics of carbon atomic chains over time from the formation, transformation, and then breakage

Atomic Resolution Imaging of Rotated Bilayer Graphene Sheets Using a Low kV Aberration-corrected Transmission Electron Microscope

Modern aberration-corrected transmission electron microscope (TEM) with appropriate electron beam energy is able to achieve atomic resolution imaging of single and bilayer graphene sheets. Especially, atomic configuration of bilayer graphene with a rotation angle can be identified from the direct imaging and phase reconstructed imaging since atomic resolution Moir pattern can be obtained successfully at atomic scale using an aberration-corrected TEM. This study boosts a reliable stacking order analysis, which is required for synthesized or artificially prepared multilayer graphene, and lets graphene researchers utilize the information of atomic configuration of stacked graphene layers readily.ope

Silicene on Other Two-dimensional Materials: Formation of Heterostructure

Silicene is one of the most interesting two-dimensional materials, because of not only the extraordinary properties similar to graphene, but also easy compatibility with existing silicon-based devices. However, non-existing graphitic-like structure on silicon and unstable free-standing silicene structure leads to difficulty in commercialization of this material. Therefore, substrates are essential for silicene, which affects various properties of silicene and supporting unstable structure. For maintaining outstanding properties of silicene, van der Waals bonding between silicene and substrate is essential because strong interaction, such as silicene with metal, breaks the band structure of silicene. Therefore, we review the stability of silicene on other two-dimensional materials for van der Waals bonding. In addition, the properties of silicene are reviewed for silicene-based heterostructure.clos

Contrast Transfer Function-Based Exit-Wave Reconstruction and Denoising of Atomic-Resolution Transmission Electron Microscopy Images of Graphene and Cu Single Atom Substitutions by Deep Learning Framework

The exit wave is the state of a uniform plane incident electron wave exiting immediately after passing through a specimen and before the atomic-resolution transmission electron microscopy (ARTEM) image is modified by the aberration of the optical system and the incoherence effect of the electron. Although exit-wave reconstruction has been developed to prevent the misinterpretation of ARTEM images, there have been limitations in the use of conventional exit-wave reconstruction in ARTEM studies of the structure and dynamics of two-dimensional materials. In this study, we propose a framework that consists of the convolutional dual-decoder autoencoder to reconstruct the exit wave and denoise ARTEM images. We calculated the contrast transfer function (CTF) for real ARTEM and assigned the output of each decoder to the CTF as the amplitude and phase of the exit wave. We present exit-wave reconstruction experiments with ARTEM images of monolayer graphene and compare the findings with those of a simulated exit wave. Cu single atom substitution in monolayer graphene was, for the first time, directly identified through exit-wave reconstruction experiments. Our exit-wave reconstruction experiments show that the performance of the denoising task is improved when compared to the Wiener filter in terms of the signal-to-noise ratio, peak signal-to-noise ratio, and structural similarity index map metrics

Quantitative Evaluation of Dislocation Density in Epitaxial GaAs Layer on Si Using Transmission Electron Microscopy

Dislocation density and distribution in epitaxial GaAs layer on Si are evaluated quantitatively and effectively using image processing of transmission electron microscopy image. In order to evaluate dislocation density and distribution, three methods are introduced based on line-intercept, line-length measurement and our coding with line-scanning method. Our coding method based on line-scanning is used to detect the dislocations line-by-line effectively by sweeping a thin line with the width of one pixel. The proposed method has advances in the evaluation of dislocation density and distribution. Dislocations can be detected automatically and continuously by a sweeping line in the code. Variation of dislocation density in epitaxial GaAs films can be precisely analyzed along the growth direction on the film.clos

One-dimensional hexagonal boron nitride conducting channel

Hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) is an insulating two-dimensional (2D) material with a large bandgap. Although known for its interfacing with other 2D materials and structural similarities to graphene, the potential use of hBN in 2D electronics is limited by its insulating nature. Here, we report atomically sharp twin boundaries at AA???/AB stacking boundaries in chemical vapor deposition???synthesized few-layer hBN. We find that the twin boundary is composed of a 6???6??? configuration, showing conducting feature with a zero bandgap. Furthermore, the formation mechanism of the atomically sharp twin boundaries is suggested by an analogy with stacking combinations of AA???/AB based on the observations of extended Klein edges at the layer boundaries of ABstacked hBN. The atomically sharp AA???/AB stacking boundary is promising as an ultimate 1D electron channel embedded in insulating pristine hBN. This study will provide insights into the fabrication of single-hBN electronic devices

Effects of surface ligands on the charge memory characteristics of CdSe/ZnS nanocrystals in TiO2 thin film

harge memory characteristics have been systematically studied based on colloidal CdSe/ZnS nanocrystal quantum dots (QDs) embedded in similar to 50 nm-thick TiO2 film. Ligand-capped QDs showed negligible electron charging effect, implying that the electron affinity of QDs was significantly decreased by surface dipole layer surrounding QDs. In contrast, the hole charging was affected by the carrier injection blocking effect of the surface ligands. Efficient electron and hole charging characteristics were realized by removing the surface ligands via H-2 plasma treatment.open4