New production method for 2-D materials could lead to smarter devices

The demand for miniaturisation of electronics, such as

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smartphones, wearables and the Internet of Things devices, is continuing to grow, but the industry is now reaching the scaling limit for traditional silicon materials. Two-dimensional (2-D) materials have attracted significant interest in recent years due to their unique electrical and mechanical properties, alongside atomically-thin dimensions.

While graphene was the first 2-D material to be studied in detail, there is now also a focus on other 2-D materials with diverse properties and new applications. Among these, single-layer molybdenum disulphide (MoS2), a semiconducting 2-D material, is generating a lot of interest due to its technologically exploitable electronic and optical properties that could pave the way for the next generation of electronics and optoelectronics devices.

In order to commercialise electronic devices made of 2-D materials, industry faces a challenge to carry out quality control checks without destroying or damaging the material. As a single-layer of a 2-D material is only a single atom or molecule thick, assessing their quality so far has only been possible using destructive techniques. Defects are expected to critically impact the performance of MoS2-based electronic devices, so the ability to investigate and quantify the number of defects without causing damage is crucial for enabling large-scale manufacture of the material, device fabrication and material functionalisation.

Read more at: https://phys.org/news/2017-07-production-method-d-materials-smarter.html#jCp