Atom-scale semiconducting composites

A little change in temperature makes a big difference for growing a new generation of hybrid atomic-layer structures, according to scientists at Rice University, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Vanderbilt University and Pennsylvania State University.

Rice scientists led the first single-step growth of self-assembled hybrid layers made of two elements that can either be side by side and one-atom thick or stacked atop each other. The structure’s final form can be tuned by changing the growth temperature.

The discovery reported online this week in Nature Materials could lead to what Rice materials scientist Pulickel Ajayan calls “pixel engineering”: atomically thin semiconductors with no limit to their potential for use in optoelectronic devices.

Schematic of the synthesis and the overall morphologies of the vertically stacked and in-plane ​WS2/​MoS2 heterostructures.

Nature Materials – Vertical and in-plane heterostructures from ​WS2/​MoS2 monolayers

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