Local electrical charac terization of t wo-dimensional mat erials with functional atomic force microscopy

Research about two-dimensional (2D) materials is growing exponentially across various scientific and engineering disciplines due to the wealth of unusual physical phenomena that occur when charge transport is confined to a plane. The applications of 2D materials are highly affected by the electrical properties of these mat erials, including curren t dist ribution, surface pot ential, dielectric response, conductivity, perm计tivity, and piezoelectric response. Hence, it is very crucial to characterize these properties at the nanoscale. The Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM)-based techniques are powerful tools that can simultaneously characterize morphology and electrical properties of 2D materials with high spatial resolution, thus being more and more extensively used in this research field. Here, the principles of these AFM techniques are reviewed in detail. After that, their representative applications are further demonstrated in the local characterization of various 2D materials? elcctrical properties.

Toplayer-dependent crystallographic orientation imaging in the bilayer two-dimensional materials with transverse shear microscopy

Nanocontact properties of two-dimensional(2D)materials are closely dependent on their unique nanomechanical systems,such as the number of atomic layers and the supporting substrate.Here,we report a direct observation of toplayer-dependent crystallographic orientation imaging of 2D materials with the transverse shear microscopy(TSM).Three typical nanomechanical systems,MoS_(2) on the amorphous SiO_(2)/Si,graphene on the amorphous SiO_(2)/Si,and MoS_(2) on the crystallized Al_(2)O_(3),have been investigated in detail.This experimental observation reveals that puckering behaviour mainly occurs on the top layer of 2D materials,which is attributed to its direct contact adhesion with the AFM tip.Furthermore,the result of crystallographic orientation imaging of MoS_(2)/SiO_(2)/Si and MoS_(2)/Al_(2)O_(3) indicated that the underlying crystalline substrates almost do not contribute to the puckering effect of 2D materials.Our work directly revealed the top layer dependent puckering properties of 2D material,and demonstrate the general applications of TSM in the bilayer 2D systems.