Epitaxial growth of 2D heterostructures for two dimensional electronics

Overview

Research activities

Material growth

• Graphene growth on SiC substrates by high temperature annealing in ultrahigh vacuum, or in Ar atmosphere.

• Heterostructures of graphene and Transition Metal Dichalcogenides synthesis by chemical vapour deposition (CVD).
• Scanning probe lithography and helium ion microscopy (HIM) will be used to limit the growth to specific areas.

Material Characterization

• Scanning Tunneling Microscopy and Spectroscopy will be used to obtain atomic resolved images of the surface.
• Xray Photoelectron Spectroscopy will provide highly accurate surface chemical composition.
• Helium Ion Microscopy, Scanning electron Microscopy will be used to obtain nanometer to micron scale images.

Theory

• Theoretical modelling will be applied to gain insight on the formation and the stability of the 2D structures.

The world-class facilities and the high level research environment available at QUT will provide the essential tools to undertake these studies, which are at the cutting edge of the nanotechnology research.

Outcomes

The main outcome of the project are:

• establish a procedure to obtain large area monolayer films of TMDs on epitaxial graphene/SiC substrates.
• a model of the kinetics and the thermodynamics of the growth processes leading to high-quality, large area heterostructures.
• demonstrate the device capabilities of graphene heterostructures grown directly on SiC.
• develop skills in surface science
• develop skills in electronic materials.

Skills and experience

To be considered for this project, you must have:

• motivation and interest in scientific problems
• strong foundations in physics, chemistry or engineering.

Scholarships

You may be eligible to apply for a research scholarship.

Explore our research scholarships

Contact

Contact the supervisor for more information.