Self-assembly of electronically abrupt borophene/organic lateral heterostructures

Abstract

Integrating borophene with organic molecules results in electronically abrupt self-assembled lateral heterostructures.

Abstract

Two-dimensional boron sheets (that is, borophene) have recently been realized experimentally and found to have promising electronic properties. Because electronic devices and systems require the integration of multiple materials with well-defined interfaces, it is of high interest to identify chemical methods for forming atomically abrupt heterostructures between borophene and electronically distinct materials. Toward this end, we demonstrate the self-assembly of lateral heterostructures between borophene and perylene-3,4,9,10-tetracarboxylic dianhydride (PTCDA). These lateral heterostructures spontaneously form upon deposition of PTCDA onto submonolayer borophene on Ag(111) substrates as a result of the higher adsorption enthalpy of PTCDA on Ag(111) and lateral hydrogen bonding among PTCDA molecules, as demonstrated by molecular dynamics simulations. In situ x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy confirms the weak chemical interaction between borophene and PTCDA, while molecular-resolution ultrahigh-vacuum scanning tunneling microscopy and spectroscopy reveal an electronically abrupt interface at the borophene/PTCDA lateral heterostructure interface. As the first demonstration of a borophene-based heterostructure, this work will inform emerging efforts to integrate borophene into nanoelectronic applications.

Affiliations

[1 ]Applied Physics Graduate Program, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL 60208, USA.

[2 ]Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL 60208, USA.

[3 ]Center for Nanoscale Materials, Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, IL 60439, USA.

[4 ]Department of Engineering Sciences and Applied Mathematics, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL 60208, USA.

[5 ]Department of Physics and Astronomy, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL 60208, USA.

[6 ]Department of Chemistry, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL 60208, USA.

[7 ]Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL 60208, USA.

Author notes

[* ]Corresponding author. Email: m-hersam@ 123456northwestern.edu

Journal

Journal ID (nlm-ta): Sci Adv

Journal ID (iso-abbrev): Sci Adv

Journal ID (publisher-id): SciAdv

Journal ID (hwp): advances

Title: Science Advances

Publisher: American Association for the Advancement of Science

ISSN (Electronic): 2375-2548

Publication date Collection February 2017

Publication date (Electronic): 22 February 2017

Volume: 3

Issue: 2

PMC ID: 5321450

Publisher ID: 1602356

DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.1602356

Copyright statement: Copyright © 2017, The Authors

License:

This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial license, which permits use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, so long as the resultant use is not for commercial advantage and provided the original work is properly cited.

Funding

Funded by: FundRef http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/100000006, Office of Naval Research;

Award ID: ID0EGYAI14022

Award ID: N00014-14-1-0669

Award Recipient : Mark C Hersam

Funded by: FundRef http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/100000078, Division of Materials Research;

Award ID: ID0EA5AI14023

Award ID: DMR-1121262

Award Recipient : Mark C Hersam

Categories

Subject: Research Article

Subject: Research Articles

Subject: SciAdv r-articles

Subject: Chemistry

Custom metadata

Copyeditor Judith Urtula