2-D Semiconductors With Extraordinary Properties Grown With Graphene

A recently discovered method for growing two dimensional semiconductors can really help in inculcating extraordinary properties in them. This is especially possible in the class of nitrides, the team was recently successful in growing a 2-D gallium nitride with graphene encapsulation. The new discovery can open gates for looking into deep ultraviolet lasers, advanced electronics, and new generation sensors. Joshua Robinson, one of the associate professor of materials science and engineering likes to explain, “These experimental results open up new avenues of research in 2D materials. This work focuses on making 2D gallium nitride, which has never been done before.”

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Figure 1: Graphene is key to grow 2-D semiconductor with extraordinary properties

Gallium nitride is actually a 3-D version of this semiconductor and is actually called as wide-bandgap semiconductor. The wide-bandgap semiconductors are pretty significant for the high power, high frequency application. When the same is developed in a 2-D form, it automatically turns into a ultrawide-bandgap material from wide-bandgap material.

This leads to an effective tripping of energy spectrum it becomes capable of working in, this includes complete infrared, visible, as well as the ultraviolet spectrum. The discovery is expected to have a great effect over electro-optic instruments that can transmit as well as manipulate light.

Zak Ul Balushi, the Ph. D student being guided by Robinson and Joan Rewig, a professor of engineering and science and electrical engineering, further adds, “This is a new way of thinking about synthesizing 2D materials. We have this particle of naturally occurring 2D materials. But to expand beyond this, we have to synthesize materials that do not exist in nature. Typically, new material systems are highly unstable. But our growth-method, called Migration Enhanced Encapsulated Growth (MEEG), uses a layer of graphene to assist the growth and stabilize a robust structure of 2D gallium nitride.”