Nanoironing van der Waals Heterostructures toward Electrically Controlled Quantum Dots

Assembling two-dimensional van der Waals (vdW)-layered materials into heterostructures is an exciting development that sparked the discovery of rich correlated electronic phenomena. vdW heterostructures also offer possibilities for designer device applications in areas such as optoelectronics, valley- and spintronics, and quantum technology. However, realizing the full potential of these heterostructures requires interfaces with exceptionally low disorder which is challenging to engineer. Here, we show that thermal scanning probes can be used to create pristine interfaces in vdW heterostructures. Our approach is compatible at both the material- and device levels, and monolayer WS₂ transistors show up to an order of magnitude improvement in electrical performance from this technique. We also demonstrate vdW heterostructures with low interface disorder enabling the electrical formation and control of quantum dots that can be tuned from macroscopic current flow to the single-electron tunneling regime.