Layer-Valley Hall Effect under Inversion and Time-Reversal Symmetries

Hall effects have been the central paradigms in modern physics,materials science and practical applications,and have led to many exciting breakthroughs,including the discovery of topological Chern invariants and the revolution of metrological resistance standard.To date,the Hall effects have mainly focused on a single degree of freedom(Do F),and most of them require the breaking of spatial-inversion and/or time-reversal symmetries.Here we demonstrate a new type of Hall effect,i.e.,layer-valley Hall effect,based on a combined layer-valley Do F characterized by the product of layer and valley indices.The layer-valley Hall effect has a quantum origin arising from the layer-valley contrasting Berry curvature,and can occur in nonmagnetic centrosymmetric crystals with both spatial-inversion and time-reversal symmetries,transcending the symmetry constraints of single Do F Hall effect based on the constituent layer or valley index.Moreover,the layer-valley Hall effect is highly tunable and shows a W-shaped pattern in response to the out-of-plane electric fields.Additionally,we discuss the potential detection approaches and material-specific design principles of layer-valley Hall effect.Our results demonstrate novel Hall physics and open up exotic paradigms for new research direction of layer-valleytronics that exploits the quantum nature of the coupled layer-valley DoF.

A facile and efficient dry transfer technique for two-dimensional Van der Waals heterostructure

Two-dimensional （2D） Van der Waals heterostructures have aroused extensive concerns in recent years. Their fabrica- tion calls for facile and efficient transfer techniques for achieving well-defined structures. In this work, we report a simple and effective dry transfer method to fabricate 2D heterostructures with a clean interface. Using Propylene Carbonate （PC） films as stamps, we are able to pick up various 2D materials flakes from the substrates and unload them to the receiving substrates at an elevated temperature. Various multilayer heterostructures with ultra-clean interfaces were fabricated by this technique. Furthermore, the 2D materials can be pre-pattemed before transfer so as to fabricate desired device structures, demonstrating a facile way to promote the development of 2D heterostructures.

Pressure-mediated contact quality improvement between monolayer MoS_2 and graphite

Two-dimensional(2D) materials and their heterostructures have attracted a lot of attention due to their unique electronic and optical properties. MoS_2 as the most typical 2D semiconductors has great application potential in thin film transistors, photodetector, hydrogen evolution reaction, memory device, etc. However, the performance of MoS_2 devices is limited by the contact resistance and the improvement of its contact quality is important. In this work, we report the experimental investigation of pressure-enhanced contact quality between monolayer MoS_2 and graphite by conductive atom force microscope(C-AFM). It was found that at high pressure, the contact quality between graphite and MoS_2 is significantly improved. This pressure-mediated contact quality improvement between MoS_2 and graphite comes from the enhanced charge transfer between MoS_2 and graphite when MoS_2 is stretched. Our results provide a new way to enhance the contact quality between MoS_2 and graphite for further applications.

Thermally induced band hybridization in bilayer-bilayer MoS2/WS2 heterostructure

Transition metal dichalcogenides(TMDs),being valley selectively,are an ideal system hosting excitons.Stacking TMDs together to form heterostructure offers an exciting platform to engineer new optical and electronic properties in solid-state systems.However,due to the limited accuracy and repetitiveness of sample preparation,the effects of interlayer coupling on the electronic and excitonic properties have not been systematically investigated.In this report,we study the photoluminescence spectra of bilayer-bilayer MoS_(2)/WS_(2) heterostructure with a typeⅡband alignment.We demonstrate that thermal annealing can increase interlayer coupling in the van der Waals heterostructures,and after thermally induced band hybridization such heterostructure behaves more like an artificial new solid,rather than just the combination of two individual TMD components.We also carry out experimental and theoretical studies of the electric controllable direct and indirect infrared interlayer excitons in such system.Our study reveals the impact of interlayer coupling on interlayer excitons and will shed light on the understanding and engineering of layer-controlled spin-valley configuration in twisted van der Waals heterostructures.

Direct visualization of structural defects in 2D semiconductors

Direct visualization of the structural defects in two-dimensional(2D)semiconductors at a large scale plays a significant role in understanding their electrical/optical/magnetic properties,but is challenging.Although traditional atomic resolution imaging techniques,such as transmission electron microscopy and scanning tunneling microscopy,can directly image the structural defects,they provide only local-scale information and require complex setups.Here,we develop a simple,non-invasive wet etching method to directly visualize the structural defects in 2D semiconductors at a large scale,including both point defects and grain boundaries.Utilizing this method,we extract successfully the defects density in several different types of monolayer molybdenum disulfide samples,providing key insights into the device functions.Furthermore,the etching method we developed is anisotropic and tunable,opening up opportunities to obtain exotic edge states on demand.

Precisely controlling the twist angle of epitaxial MoS_(2)/graphene heterostructure by AFM tip manipulation

Two-dimensional(2D)moirématerials have attracted a lot of attention and opened a new research frontier of twistronics due to their novel physical properties.Although great progress has been achieved,the inability to precisely and reproducibly manipulate the twist angle hinders the further development of twistronics.Here,we demonstrated an atomic force microscope(AFM)tip manipulation method to control the interlayer twist angle of epitaxial MoS_(2)/graphene heterostructure with an ultra-high accuracy better than 0.1°.Furthermore,conductive AFM and spectroscopic characterizations were conducted to show the effects of the twist angle on moirépattern wavelength,phonons and excitons.Our work provides a technique to precisely control the twist angle of 2D moirématerials,enabling the possibility to establish the phase diagrams of moiréphysics with twist angle.

Epitaxial growth of trilayer graphene moiré superlattice

The graphene-based moiré superlattice has been demonstrated as an exciting system for investigating strong correlation phenomenon. However, the fabrication of such moiré superlattice mainly relies on transfer technology. Here, we report the epitaxial growth of trilayer graphene(TLG) moiré superlattice on hexagonal boron nitride(h BN) by a remote plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition method. The as-grown TLG/h BN shows a uniform moiré pattern with a period of ~ 15 nm by atomic force microscopy(AFM) imaging, which agrees with the lattice mismatch between graphene and h BN. By fabricating the device with both top and bottom gates, we observed a gate-tunable bandgap at charge neutral point(CNP) and displacement field tunable satellite resistance peaks at half and full fillings. The resistance peak at half-filling indicates a strong electron–electron correlation in our grown TLG/h BN superlattice. In addition, we observed quantum Hall states at Landau level filling factors ν = 6, 10, 14,..., indicating that our grown trilayer graphene has the ABC stacking order. Our work suggests that epitaxy provides an easy way to fabricate stable and reproducible two-dimensional strongly correlated electronic materials.

Coupled Ferroelectricity and Correlated States in a Twisted Quadrilayer MoS_(2) Moiré Superlattice

Moiré superlattices have emerged as a highly controllable quantum platform for exploration of various fascinating phenomena,such as Mott insulator states,ferroelectric order,unconventional superconductivity and orbital ferromagnetism.Although remarkable progress has been achieved,current research in moiré physics has mainly focused on the single species properties,while the coupling between distinct moiré quantum phenomena remains elusive.Here we demonstrate,for the first time,the strong coupling between ferroelectricity and correlated states in a twisted quadrilayer MoS2moiré superlattice,where the twist angles are controlled in sequence to be ~57°,~0°,and ~-57°.Correlated insulator states are unambiguously established at moiré band filling factors v = 1,2,3 of twisted quadrilayer MoS_(2).Remarkably,ferroelectric order can occur at correlated insulator states and disappears quickly as the moiré band filling deviates from the integer fillings,providing smoking gun evidences of the coupling between ferroelectricity and correlated states.Our results demonstrate the coupling between different moiré quantum properties and will hold great promise for new moiré physics and applications.