Stack growth of wafer-scale van der Waals superconductor heterostructures

Two-dimensional (2D) van der Waals (vdW) heterostructures have attracted considerable attention in recent years1-5. The most widely used method of fabrication is to stack mechanically exfoliated micrometre-sized flakes6-18, but this process is not scalable for practical applications. Despite thousands of 2D materials being created, using various stacking combinations1-3,19-21, hardly any large 2D superconductors can be stacked intact into vdW heterostructures, greatly restricting the applications for such devices. Here we report a high-to-low temperature strategy for controllably growing stacks of multiple-layered vdW superconductor heterostructure (vdWSH) films at a wafer scale. The number of layers of 2D superconductors in the vdWSHs can be precisely controlled, and we have successfully grown 27 double-block, 15 triple-block, 5 four-block and 3 five-block vdWSH films (where one block represents one 2D material). Morphological, spectroscopic and atomic-scale structural analyses reveal the presence of parallel, clean and atomically sharp vdW interfaces on a large scale, with very little contamination between neighbouring layers. The intact vdW interfaces allow us to achieve proximity-induced superconductivity and superconducting Josephson junctions on a centimetre scale. Our process for making multiple-layered vdWSHs can easily be generalized to other situations involving 2D materials, potentially accelerating the design of next-generation functional devices and applications22-24. Stacks of van der Waals superconductor heterostructures comprising many layers and several blocks of two-dimensional materials have been grown in a highly controllable manner at a wafer scale using a high-to-low temperature strategy.

Automated summary

This study reports a high-to-low temperature strategy for the controlled growth of multiple-layered vdW superconductor heterostructure films on a wafer scale. The presence of parallel, clean, and atomically sharp vdW interfaces on a large scale, with very little contamination between neighboring layers, has been revealed. The method can be easily applied to other situations involving 2D materials, potentially accelerating the design of next-generation functional devices and applications.