Machine learning electron-phonon interactions in two-dimensional semiconducting materials: The case of zero-point renormalization
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The discovery of graphene, an atomic-thick carbon layer that can be exfoliated off a bulk graphite, has demonstrated various surprising properties and inspired a fervent quest for other new quasi-two-dimensional materials. Many analogues have been discovered, including borophene, silicene, germanene, stanene, phosphorene, arsenene, antimonene and bismuthine — one-atom-thick sheets of boron, silicon, germanium, tin, phosphorus, arsenic, antimony and bismuth, respectively. Borophene is a prototype for a synthetic two-dimensional (2D) material that does not have bulk layered counterparts. Furthermore, the growth of borophene often requires interfacial coupling with the metal substrate to stabilize its 2D form. Despite realizing rich polymorphs, the synthesized borophene is currently limited to only single atomic layers. Now, writing in Nature Materials, Xiaolong Liu and colleagues report the synthesis of double-layer (DL) borophene, which offers another degree of freedom to tune borophene structures and physical properties for electronic applications.
Nanofiltration (NF) membranes have garnered significant interest for Li + /Mg 2+ separation, a crucial step in lithium extraction from brines. The state-of-the-art commercial LiNE-XD membrane exhibits a Li + /Mg 2+ separation factor (SF Li/Mg ) of 42 at pH 3.3, due to the positive charges on the membrane surface and its strong size-sieving ability. Membranes with higher separation factors at a broad pH range are being pursued to improve separation efficiency. This work aims to provide a timely and comprehensive assessment of advanced NF membranes with superior Li + /Mg 2+ separation properties, as well as their structure and property relationships for designing next-generation membranes. We describe transport mechanisms for ions in NF membranes and discuss governing parameters and models employed to quantify the Li + /Mg 2+ separation. High-performance membrane materials are exhaustively introduced, including commercial and modified polyamides, two-dimensional materials, metal–organic frameworks, crown ethers, and their blends. Finally, we critically compare these membranes in an upper bound plot and highlight the opportunities and challenges of NF membranes for practical Li + /Mg 2+ separations.
Magnetism in two-dimensional (2D) van der Waals (vdW) materials has recently emerged as one of the most promising areas in condensed matter research, with many exciting emerging properties and significant potential for applications ranging from topological magnonics to low-power spintronics, quantum computing, and optical communications. In the brief time after their discovery, 2D magnets have blossomed into a rich area for investigation, where fundamental concepts in magnetism are challenged by the behavior of spins that can develop at the single layer limit. However, much effort is still needed in multiple fronts before 2D magnets can be routinely used for practical implementations. In this comprehensive review, prominent authors with expertise in complementary fields of 2D magnetism (i.e., synthesis, device engineering, magneto-optics, imaging, transport, mechanics, spin excitations, and theory and simulations) have joined together to provide a genome of current knowledge and a guideline for future developments in 2D magnetic materials research.
As a member of graphene analogs, metallenes are a class of two-dimensional materials with atomic thickness and well-controlled surface atomic arrangement made of metals or alloys. When utilized as catalysts, metallenes exhibit distinctive physicochemical properties endowed from the under-coordinated metal atoms on the surface, making them highly competitive candidates for energy-related electrocatalysis and energy conversion systems. Significantly, their catalytic activity can be precisely tuned through the chemical modification of their surface and subsurface atoms for efficient catalyst engineering. Here, this minireview summarizes the recent progress in the synthesis and characterization of metallenes, together with their use as electrocatalysts toward reactions for energy conversion. In the Synthesis section, we pay particular attention to the strategies designed to tune their exposed facets, composition, and surface strain, as well as the porosity/cavity, defects, and crystallinity on the surface. We then discuss the electrocatalytic properties of metallenes in terms of oxygen reduction, hydrogen evolution, alcohol and acid oxidation, carbon dioxide reduction, and nitrogen reduction reaction, with a small extension regarding photocatalysis. At the end, we offer perspectives on the challenges and opportunities with respect to the synthesis, characterization, modeling, and application of metallenes.
Moiré superlattices in twisted two-dimensional materials have generated tremendous excitement as a platform for achieving quantum properties on demand. However, the moiré pattern is highly sensitive to the interlayer atomic registry, and current assembly techniques suffer from imprecise control of the average twist angle, spatial inhomogeneity in the local twist angle, and distortions caused by random strain. We manipulated the moiré patterns in hetero- and homobilayers through in-plane bending of monolayer ribbons, using the tip of an atomic force microscope. This technique achieves continuous variation of twist angles with improved twist-angle homogeneity and reduced random strain, resulting in moiré patterns with tunable wavelength and ultralow disorder. Our results may enable detailed studies of ultralow-disorder moiré systems and the realization of precise strain-engineered devices.
The scattering-type scanning near-field optical microscope (s-SNOM) has emerged as a powerful tool for resolving nanoscale inhomogeneities in laterally heterogeneous samples. However, most analytical models used to predict the scattering near-field signals are assuming homogenous landscapes (bulk materials), resulting in inconsistencies when applied to samples with more complex configurations. In this work, we combine the point-dipole model (PDM) to the finite-element method (FEM) to account for the lateral and vertical heterogeneities while keeping the computation time manageable. Full images, spectra, or hyperspectral line profiles can be simulated by calculating the self-consistent dipole radiation demodulated at higher harmonics of the tip oscillation, mimicking real experimental procedures. Using this formalism, we clarify several important yet puzzling experimental observations in near-field images on samples with rich typography and complex material compositions, heterostructures of two-dimensional material flakes, and plasmonic antennas. The developed method serves as a basis for future investigations of nano-systems with nontrivial topography.
Modern research of condensed matters devotes in understanding how properties of complex solids are determined by their structural and electronic degrees of freedom. In the last decade, the discovery of Fe-based high-temperature superconductors as well as the discovery of protected surface state in bulk materials arising from the non-trivial topological electronic structures have brought revolutionary breakthroughs, advancing our understanding of the interplay of structure, band topology, spin and charge degrees of freedom to a new level. Despite the exciting progresses, significant materials challenges remain. To address such challenges, our research funded by this award focuses on the design, synthesis and property characterization of two types of quantum materials. One is quasi-two-dimensional materials with structural/magnetic instability, the other is topological materials, especially the “ideal” ones where only minimum non-trivial bands exist at the Fermi level. The objective of our research is to design quantum materials that lie at the edge of structural/magnetic instabilities as well as the ones with non-trivial band topology, aiming at the discovery of quantum materials with emergent phenomena and the in-depth understanding of the entanglement of band topology and various degrees of freedoms through thermodynamic, transport, X-ray, and neutron measurements.
Improvements in microscopy have enabled the acquisition of data at a scale that is difficult to process manually, making automated machine learning approaches to analyzing experimental images essential. In this project, we developed and applied machine learning (ML) workflows for atomic resolution scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM) images. This development included improving both methodology as well as generating user-friendly codes. We developed machine learning architectures which, after training, automatically identify the location and types of defects throughout a material. We used these data to produce class-averaged images of 2D atomic coordinates with up to 0.3 pm precision, uncovering the structure and oscillations of long-range strain fields around point defects in WSe 2-2x Te 2x . We also resolved a long-standing problem in this field in the training of ML models, a lack of labeled experimental data, by developing a cycle-GAN that transformed simulated-generated labeled data into labeled data indistinguishable from experiment and therefore suitable for training. This removed the remaining parts of the ML data processing workflow where human intervention was still critical and therefore a bottleneck to working at scale. Codes have been developed and released for this full machine learning workflow. ML approaches to partially automate STEM acquisition were also developed. Finally we applied ML and other advanced data processing methods to several materials science problems in two-dimensional materials, including studying the evolution of hyperuniformity with defect concentration in WSe2, understanding phase transformations in transition metal dichalcogenides during in-situ heating in the STEM, and exploring how 2D interfaces transform from twisted into aligned structures.
Ti 3 C 2 T x MXene is an emerging family of two-dimensional materials, and because of its large specific surface area, it has potential for many applications. Herein, a new application using Cu-doped MILD (minimally intensive layer delamination) synthesized Ti 3 C 2 T x MXene for urea removal is demonstrated. The doping of Cu on MXene results in an increase in its affinity for urea adsorption as compared to the pristine MILD synthesized MXene due to the formation of the Cu–urea complex. Previous computational studies have shown that the adsorption energies of urea on the MXene surface can be improved in the presence of Cu. The valence state of Cu in the doped MILD synthesized MXene, which binds on to the surface via Ti–O–Cu linkage, is between 0 and +1 as verified by XAS and XPS. As the optimal urea adsorption occurs on Cu as a single atom site, an increase in Cu doping on MXene does not increase urea removal due to Cu agglomeration. Furthermore, looking at the adsorption behaviour, it seems that Cu-doped MXene follows the monolayer adsorption on homogenous surface model.
We report a theoretical study of the coherence dynamics of spin qubits in two-dimensional materials (2DMs) and van der Waals heterostructures, as a function of the host thickness and the composition of the surrounding environment. We focus on MoS2 and WS2, two promising systems for quantum technology applications, and we consider the decoherence arising from the interaction of the spin qubit with nuclear spins. We show that the Hahn-echo coherence time is determined by a complex interplay between the source of decoherence in the qubit host and in the environment, which in turn determines whether the noise evolution is in a classical or quantum mechanical regime. We suggest that the composition and thickness of van der Waals heterostructures encapsulating a qubit host can be engineered to maximize coherence times. Finally, we discuss how quantum sensors may be able to probe the dynamics of the nuclear bath in 2DMs.
Interactions of quantum materials with strong-laser fields can induce exotic nonequilibrium electronic states. Monolayer transition-metal dichalcogenides, a new class of direct-gap semiconductors with prominent quantum confinement, offer exceptional opportunities toward Floquet engineering of quasiparticle electron-hole states, or excitons. Strong-field driving has a potential to achieve enhanced control of electronic band structure, thus a possibility to open a new realm of exciton light-matter interactions. However, experimental implementation of strongly-driven excitons has so far remained out of reach. Here, we use mid-infrared laser pulses below the optical bandgap to excite monolayer tungsten disulfide up to a field strength of 0.3 V/nm, and demonstrate strong-field light dressing of excitons in the excess of a hundred millielectronvolt. Our high-sensitivity transient absorption spectroscopy further reveals formation of a virtual absorption feature below the 1s-exciton resonance, which is assigned to a light-dressed sideband from the dark 2p-exciton state. Quantum-mechanical simulations substantiate the experimental results and enable us to retrieve real-space movies of the exciton dynamics. Here, this study advances our understanding of the exciton dynamics in the strong-field regime, and showcases the possibility of harnessing ultrafast, strong-field phenomena in device applications of two-dimensional materials.
Moiré superlattices of van der Waals heterostructures provide a powerful way to engineer electronic structures of two-dimensional materials. Many novel quantum phenomena have emerged in graphene and transition metal dichalcogenide moiré systems. Twisted phosphorene offers another attractive system to explore moiré physics because phosphorene features an anisotropic rectangular lattice, different from isotropic hexagonal lattices previously reported. Here we report emerging anisotropic moiré optical transitions in twisted monolayer/bilayer phosphorenes. The optical resonances in phosphorene moiré superlattice depend sensitively on twist angle and are completely different from those in the constitute monolayer and bilayer phosphorene even for a twist angle as large as 19°. Our calculations reveal that the Γ-point direct bandgap and the rectangular lattice of phosphorene give rise to the remarkably strong moiré physics in large-twist-angle phosphorene heterostructures. This work highlights fresh opportunities to explore moiré physics in phosphorene and other van der Waals heterostructures with different lattice configurations.
Ferromagnetic resonance force microscopy (FMRFM) is a powerful scanned probe technique that uses sub-micrometer-scale, spatially localized standing spin wave modes (LMs) to perform local ferromagnetic resonance (FMR) measurements. In this work, we show the spatially resolved imaging of Gilbert damping in a ferromagnetic material (FM) using FMRFM. Typically damping is measured from the FMR linewidth. We demonstrate an approach to image the spatial variation of Gilbert damping utilizing the LM resonance peak height to measure the LM resonance cone angle. This approach enables determination of damping through field-swept FMRFM at a single excitation frequency. The extreme force sensitivity of similar to 2 fN at room temperature can resolve changes of Gilbert damping as small as ~2 x 10 -4 at 2GHz, corresponding to ~0.16Oe in FMR linewidth resolution. This high sensitivity, high spatial resolution, and single frequency imaging of Gilbert damping creates the opportunity to study spin interactions at the interface between an insulating FM and a small volume of nonmagnetic material such as atomically thin two-dimensional materials.
Heteroatom doping can effectively tailor the local structures and electronic states of intrinsic two-dimensional materials, and endow them with modified optical, electrical, and mechanical properties. Recent studies have shown the feasibility of preparing doped graphene from graphene oxide and its derivatives via some post-treatments, including solid-state and solvothermal methods, but they require reactive and harsh reagents. However, direct synthesis of various heteroatom-doped graphene in larger quantities and high purity through bottom-up methods remains challenging. Here, we report catalyst-free and solvent-free direct synthesis of graphene doped with various heteroatoms in bulk via flash Joule heating (FJH). Seven types of heteroatom-doped flash graphene (FG) are synthesized through millisecond flashing, including single-element-doped FG (boron, nitrogen, oxygen, phosphorus, sulfur), two-element-co-doped FG (boron and nitrogen), as well as three-element-co-doped FG (boron, nitrogen, and sulfur). Here, a variety of low-cost dopants, such as elements, oxides, and organic compounds are used. The graphene quality of heteroatom-doped FG is high, and similar to intrinsic FG, the material exhibits turbostraticity, increased interlayer spacing, and superior dispersibility. Electrochemical oxygen reduction reaction of different heteroatom-doped FG is tested, and sulfur-doped FG shows the best performance. Lithium metal battery tests demonstrate that nitrogen-doped FG exhibits a smaller nucleation overpotential compared to Cu or undoped FG. The electrical energy cost for the synthesis of heteroatom-doped FG synthesis is only 1.2 to 10.7 kJ g –1 , which could render the FJH method suitable for low-cost mass production of heteroatom-doped graphene.
Understanding the interfacial properties between an atomic layer and its substrate is of key interest at both the fundamental and technological levels. From Fermi level pinning to strain engineering and superlubricity, the interaction between a single atomic layer and its substrate governs electronic, mechanical and chemical properties. Here, we measure the hardly accessible interfacial transverse shear modulus of an atomic layer on a substrate. By performing measurements on bulk graphite, and on epitaxial graphene films on SiC with different stacking orders and twisting, as well as in the presence of intercalated hydrogen, we find that the interfacial transverse shear modulus is critically controlled by the stacking order and the atomic layer–substrate interaction. Importantly, we demonstrate that this modulus is a pivotal measurable property to control and predict sliding friction in supported two-dimensional materials. The experiments demonstrate a reciprocal relationship between friction force per unit contact area and interfacial shear modulus. As a result, the same relationship emerges from simulations with simple friction models, where the atomic layer– substrate interaction controls the shear stiffness and therefore the resulting friction dissipation.