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Updated: May 1, 2026

Fabricating van der Waals Heterostructures with Precise Rotational Alignment
Published on: July 5, 2019
Bridging Precision and Scalability in Van der Waals Assembly Engineering via Lens-Enhanced Optical Transfer
Muhammad Hassan Shaikh1, Alexander Hutchinson1,2, Collin Maurtua2
1Department of Physics, University of Delaware, Newark, Delaware, USA.
Abstract:
2D materials hold immense promise for next-generation electronics and quantum technologies. However, their full potential has been hindered by the lack of scalable transfer techniques that can simultaneously enable high-precision, deterministic placement, and enhance imaging quality to ensure accurate transfer by both human and automated methods. Here, we present a room-temperature transfer method integrating an optical-grade N-BK7 hemispherical lens with a polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) stamp system, resolving the fundamental trade-off between transfer precision and optical resolution. Our technique achieves three key advances while eliminating any thermal processing: (1) improvement in imaging resolution through aberration correction, (2) transfer success rates, and (3) universal compatibility with diverse architectures, including patterned electrodes, etched substrates, and nanopillar arrays. Our method achieves the placement accuracy as low as and is fully compatible with motorized staging. This enables the selective pickup of target flakes and effectively eliminates non-target material, which can occupy valuable space or lead to electrical shorts in pre-patterned fabricated devices, establishing a transformative platform for scalable production of van der Waals heterostructures. This advance bridges the critical gap between laboratory research and industrial-scale manufacturing of 2D material devices.

