Stacking, strain, and twist in 2D materials quantified by 3D electron diffraction

Suk Hyun Sung, Noah Schnitzer, Lola Brown, Jiwoong Park, and Robert Hovden
Phys. Rev. Materials 3, 064003 – Published 25 June 2019
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Abstract

The field of two-dimensional (2D) materials has expanded to multilayered systems in which electronic, optical, and mechanical properties change—often dramatically—with stacking order, thickness, twist, and interlayer spacing. For transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs), bond coordination within a single van der Waals layer changes the out-of-plane symmetry that can cause metal-insulator transitions or emergent quantum behavior. Discerning these structural order parameters is often difficult using real-space measurements; however, we show that 2D materials have distinct, conspicuous three-dimensional (3D) structure in reciprocal space described by nearly infinite oscillating Bragg rods. Combining electron diffraction and specimen tilt we probe Bragg rods in all three dimensions to identify multilayer structure with subangstrom precision across several 2D materials—including TMDs (MoS2, TaSe2, TaS2) and multilayer graphene. We demonstrate quantitative determination of key structural parameters such as surface roughness, inter- and intralayer spacings, stacking order, and interlayer twist using a rudimentary transmission electron microscope. We accurately characterize the full interlayer stacking order of multilayer graphene (1, 2, 6, 12 layers) as well the intralayer structure of MoS2 and extract a chalcogen-chalcogen layer spacing of 3.07±0.11 Å. Furthermore, we demonstrate quick identification of multilayer rhombohedral graphene.

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  • Received 11 March 2019

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevMaterials.3.064003

©2019 American Physical Society

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Condensed Matter, Materials & Applied PhysicsGeneral Physics

Authors & Affiliations

Suk Hyun Sung1, Noah Schnitzer1, Lola Brown2, Jiwoong Park3,4,5, and Robert Hovden1,6,*

  • 1Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109, USA
  • 2Intel Electronics, Kiryat Gat 82109, Israel
  • 3Department of Chemistry, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60637, USA
  • 4Institute for Molecular Engineering, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60637, USA
  • 5James Franck Institute, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60637, USA
  • 6Applied Physics Program, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109, USA

  • *hovden@umich.edu

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Issue

Vol. 3, Iss. 6 — June 2019

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