Cross-plane transport in a single-molecule two-dimensional van der Waals heterojunction

Lambert, Colin and Wu, Qingqing and Sadeghi, Hatef and Zhao, Shiqiang and Pi, Jiuchan and Liu, Junyang and Zheng, Jueting and Hou, Songjun and Wei, Junying and Li, Ruihao and Yang, Yang and Shi, Jia and Chen, Zhaobin and Xiao, Zongyuan and Hong, Wenjing (2020) Cross-plane transport in a single-molecule two-dimensional van der Waals heterojunction. Science Advances, 6 (22). ISSN 2375-2548

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Abstract

Two-dimensional van der Waals heterostructures (2D-vdWHs) stacked from atomically thick 2D materials are predicted to be a diverse class of electronic materials with unique electronic properties. These properties can be further tuned by sandwiching monolayers of planar organic molecules between 2D materials to form molecular 2D-vdW heterojunctions (M-2D-vdWHs), in which electricity flows in a cross-plane way from one 2D layer to the other via a single molecular layer. Using a newly developed cross-plane break junction (XPBJ) technique, combined with density functional theory calculations, we show that M-2D-vdWHs can be created, and that cross-plane charge transport can be tuned by incorporating guest molecules. More importantly, the M-2D-vdWHs exhibit distinct cross-plane charge transport signatures, which differ from those of molecules undergoing in-plane charge transport.