Scalable Integration of Lateral van der Waals Heterostructure Arrays via a Self-Aligned Approach.

Area of Science:

• Materials Science
• Nanotechnology
• Condensed Matter Physics

Background:

• Two-dimensional (2D) material lateral van der Waals heterostructures (vdWHs) are promising for advanced nano devices.
• Current fabrication methods lack nanoscale precision, hindering large-scale production.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a scalable, self-aligned fabrication method for 2D material lateral vdWH arrays.
• To demonstrate the performance advantages of these lateral vdWHs compared to vertical counterparts.

Main Methods:

• A self-aligned fabrication technique compatible with semiconductor manufacturing.
• Fabrication of over 800 lateral MoS₂/graphene vdWHs on a Si/SiO₂ substrate.

Main Results:

• Achieved large-scale fabrication of lateral MoS₂/graphene vdWH arrays with high yield and uniformity.
• Lateral vdWH devices exhibited a six-order-of-magnitude reduction in dark current density.
• Demonstrated a three-order-of-magnitude enhancement in the normalized photocurrent-to-dark-current ratio.

Conclusions:

• The developed scalable strategy enables high-performance 2D material lateral vdWH devices.
• This method offers minimal device-to-device variation and excellent imaging performance.
• The approach is extendable to other 2D materials for next-generation functional devices.