Wafer-Scale Programmed Assembly of One-Atom-Thick Crystals

Crystalline films offer various physical properties based on the modulation of their thicknesses and atomic structures. The layer-bylayer assembly of atomically thin crystals provides a powerful means to arbitrarily design films at the atomic level, which are unattainable with existing growth technologies. However, atomically clean assembly of the materials with high scalability and reproducibility remains challenging. We report programmed crystal assembly of graphene and monolayer hexagonal boron nitride, assisted by van der Waals interactions, to form wafer-scale films of pristine interfaces with near-unity yield. The atomic configurations of the films are tailored with layer-resolved compositions and in-plane crystalline orientations. We demonstrate batch-fabricated tunnel device arrays with modulation of the resistance over orders of magnitude by thickness control of the hexagonal boron nitride barrier with single-atom precision and large-scale, twisted multilayer graphene with programmable electronic band structures and crystal symmetries. Our results constitute an important development in the artificial design of large- scale films.

Automated summary

By utilizing van der Waals interactions, we have successfully achieved programmed crystal assembly of graphene and monolayer hexagonal boron nitride, resulting in wafer-scale films with near-perfect interfaces and high yield. Through controlling the thickness of the hexagonal boron nitride barrier, the multilayer structure and electronic band structure of graphene, we have demonstrated tunable electronic device arrays.