Electronic transport in atomically thin layered materials

Abstract

Electronic transport in atomically thin layered materials has been a burgeoning field of study since the discovery of isolated single layer graphene in 2004. Graphene, a semi-metal, has a unique gapless Dirac-like band structure at low electronic energies, giving rise to novel physical phenomena and applications based on them. Graphene is also light, strong, transparent, highly conductive, and flexible, making it a promising candidate for next-generation electronics. Graphene's success has led to a rapid expansion of the world of 2D electronics, as researchers search for corollary materials that will also support stable, atomically thin, crystalline structures. The family of transition metal diclialcogenides represent some of the most exciting advances in that effort. Crucially, transition metal dichalcogenides add semiconducting elements to the world of 2D materials, enabling digital electronics and optoelectronics. Moreover, the single layer variants of these materials can posses a direct band gap, which greatly enhances their optical properties. This thesis is comprised of work performed on graphene and the dichalcogenides MoS 2 and WSe2. Initially, we expand on the family of exciting graphene devices with new work in the fabrication and characterization of suspended graphene nanoelectromnechanical resonators. Here we will demonstrate novel suspension techniques for graphene devices, the ion beam etching of nanoscale patterns into suspended graphene systems, and characterization studies of high frequency graphene nanoelectromechanical resonators that approach the GHz regime. We will then describe pioneering work on the characterization of atomically thin transition metal dichalcogenides and the development of electronics and optoelectronics based on those materials. We will describe the intrinsic electronic transport properties of high quality monolayer and bilayer MoS 2 , performing Hall measurements and demonstrating the temperature dependence of the material's resistivity, mobility, and contact resistance. And we will present data on optoelectronic devices based on electrically tunable p-n diodes in monolayer WSe2 , demonstrating a photodiode, solar cell, and light emitting diode.