Electrically-driven ultrafast out-of-equilibrium light emission from hot electrons in suspended graphene/hBN heterostructures

Nanoscale light sources with high speed of electrical modulation and low energy consumption are key components for nanophotonics and optoelectronics.The record-high carrier mobility and ultrafast carrier dynamics of graphene make it promising as an atomically thin light emitter which can be further integrated into arbitrary platforms by van der Waals forces.However,due to the zero bandgap,graphene is difficult to emit light through the interband recombination of carriers like conventional semiconductors.Here,we demonstrate ultrafast thermal light emitters based on suspended graphene/hexagonal boron nitride(Gr/hBN)heterostructures.Electrons in biased graphene are significantly heated up to 2800 K at modest electric fields,emitting bright photons from the near-infrared to the visible spectral range.By eliminating the heat dissipation channel of the substrate,the radiation efficiency of the suspended Gr/hBN device is about two orders of magnitude greater than that of graphene devices supported on SiO2or hBN.Wefurther demonstrate that hot electrons and low-energy acoustic phonons in graphene are weakly coupled to each other and are not in full thermal equilibrium.Direct cooling ofhigh-temperature hot electrons to low-temperature acoustic phonons is enabled by the significant near-field heat transfer at the highly localized Gr/hBN interface,resulting in ultrafast thermal emission with up to 1 GHz bandwidth under electrical excitation.It is found thatsuspending the Gr/hBN heterostructures on the SiO2trenches significantly modifies the light emission due to the formation of the optical cavity and showed a~440%enhancement inintensity at the peak wavelength of 940 nm compared to the black-body thermal radiation.The demonstration of electrically driven ultrafast light emission from suspended Gr/hBNheterostructures sheds the light on applications of graphene heterostructures in photonicintegrated circuits,such as broadband light sources and ultrafast thermo-optic phase modulators.

Unipolar p-type monolayer WSe_(2) field-effect transistors with high current density and low contact resistance enabled by van der Waals contacts

High-performance field-effect transistors (FETs) based on atomically thin two-dimensional (2D) semiconductors have demonstrated great promise in post-Moore integrated circuits. However, unipolar p-type 2D semiconductor transistors yet remain challenging and suffer from low saturation current density (less than 10 µA·µm^(−1)) and high contact resistance (larger than 100 kΩ·µm), mainly limited by the Schottky barrier induced by the mismatch of the work-functions and the Fermi level pinning at the metal contact interfaces. Here, we overcome these two obstacles through van der Waals (vdW) integration of high work-function metal palladium (Pd) as the contacts onto monolayer WSe2 grown by chemical vapor deposition (CVD) method. We demonstrate unipolar p-type monolayer WSe2 FETs with superior device performance: room temperature on-state current density exceeding 100 µA·µm^(−1), contact resistance of 12 kΩ·µm, on/off ratio over 107, and field-effect hole mobility of ~ 103 cm2·V^(−1)·s^(−1). Electrical transport measurements reveal that the Fermi level pinning effect is completely effectively eliminated in monolayer WSe2 with vdW Pd contacts, leading to a Schottky barrier-free Ohmic contact at the metal-semiconductor junctions. Combining the advantages of large-scale vdW contact strategy and CVD growth, our results pave the way for wafer-scale fabrication of complementary-metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) logic circuits based on atomically thin 2D semiconductors.

Light-induced irreversible structural phase transition in trilayer graphene

A crystal structure has a profound influence on the physical properties of the corresponding material.By synthesizing crystals with particular symmetries,one can strongly tune their properties,even for the same chemical configuration(compare graphite and diamond,for instance).Even more interesting opportunities arise when the structural phases of crystals can be changed dynamically through external stimulations.Such abilities,though rare,lead to a number of exciting phenomena,such as phase-change memory effects.In the case of trilayer graphene,there are two common stacking configurations(ABA and ABC)that have distinct electronic band structures and exhibit very different behaviors.Domain walls exist in the trilayer graphene with both stacking orders,showing fascinating new physics such as the quantum valley Hall effect.Extensive efforts have been dedicated to the phase engineering of trilayer graphene.However,the manipulation of domain walls to achieve precise control of local structures and properties remains a considerable challenge.Here,we experimentally demonstrate that we can switch from one structural phase to another by laser irradiation,creating domains of different shapes in trilayer graphene.The ability to control the position and orientation of the domain walls leads to fine control of the local structural phases and properties of graphene,offering a simple but effective approach to create artificial two-dimensional materials with designed atomic structures and electronic and optical properties.

Highly anisotropic thermal conductivity of few-layer CrOCl for efficient heat dissipation in graphene device

With the packing density growing continuously in integrated electronic devices,sufficient heat dissipation becomes a serious challenge.Recently,dielectric materials with high thermal conductivity have brought insight into effective dissipation of waste heat in electronic devices to prevent them from overheating and guarantee the performance stability.Layered CrOCl,an antiferromagnetic insulator with low-symmetry crystal structure and atomic level flatness,might be a promising solution to the thermal challenge.Herein,we have systematically studied the thermal transport of suspended few-layer CrOCl flakes by microRaman thermometry.The CrOCl flakes exhibit high thermal conductivities along zigzag direction,from~392±33 to~1,017±46 W·m^(−1)·K^(−1) with flake thickness from 2 to 50 nm.Besides,pronounced thickness-dependent thermal conductivity ratio(/from~2.8±0.24 to~4.3±0.25)has been observed in the CrOCl flakes,attributed to the discrepancy of phonon dispersion and phonon surface scattering.As a demonstration to the heat sink application of layered CrOCl,we then investigate the energy dissipation in graphene devices on CrOCl,SiO_(2) and hexagonal boron nitride(h-BN)substrates,respectively.The graphene device temperature rise on CrOCl is only 15.4%of that on SiO_(2) and 30%on h-BN upon the same electric power density,indicating the efficient heat dissipation of graphene device on CrOCl.Our study provides new insights into two-dimentional(2D)dielectric material with high thermal conductivity and strong anisotropy for the application of thermal management in electronic devices.

Anisotropic in-plane thermal conductivity for multi-layer WTe_(2)

Improving thermal transport between substrate and transistors has become a vital solution to the thermal challenge in nanoelectronics.Recently 2D WTe_(2) has sparked extensive interest because of heavy atomic mass and low Debye temperature.Here,the thermal transport of supported WTe_(2) was studied via Raman thermometry with electrical heating.The supported 30 nm WTe2 encased with 70 nm Al_(2)O_(3) delivered 4.8 W·m^(-1)·K^(-1)in-plane thermal conductivity along zigzag direction at room temperature,which was almost 1.6 times larger than that along armchair direction(3.0 W·m^(-1)·K^(-1)).Interestingly,the superior and inferior directions for thermal transport are just opposite of those for electrical transport.Hence,a heat manipulation model in WTe_(2) FET device was proposed.Within the designed configuration,waste heat in WTe_(2) would be mostly dissipated to metal contacts located along zigzag,relieving the local temperature discrepancy in the channel effectively and preventing degradation or breakdown.Our study provides new insight into thermal transport of anisotropic 2D materials,which might inspire energy-efficient nanodevices in the future.