Ames Laboratory researchers Michael Tringides and Pat Theil are explorers on that frontier, identifying the unique properties of 2-dimensional substances and metals grown on graphite, graphene and other carbon coated surfaces.
“Our work is somewhat of a miracle, if researchers can talk about miracles,” says Tringides, who is also a lecturer of physics at Iowa State University. “Just a few decades ago, no one would have believed that we could witness individual atoms, but our potentialities now not just enable us to witness them, but manipulate them, such as a child building brick blocks. We are able to prepare such substances from the bottom up, ones that could never occur in nature.”
They are prepared in a regulated laboratory setting, in an ultra-high vacuum environment, and identified with the support of scanning tunnelling microscopy. After heating the substrate to high temperature all defects and impurities are eradicated. The substrate is cooled and atoms of interest are deposited one by one from specially designed sources.
By tuning the temperature and deposition rate, the scientists search for the Goldilocks – conditions – atoms move not too slow and not too fast, so a really 2D material forms. While their study groups prepare a range of surface substances in their work, the fabrication techniques all have one thing in common. They attempt to confine the assembly of the atoms to the 2D plane. That is problematic, as it is against to what the atoms naturally intend to do under most conditions, to assemble in three dimensions.
“Atoms are chaotic in nature, we are fighting this randomness in everything we do,” says Tringides. “In our study, atoms are accurately arranged on an exceedingly reactive surface in a vacuum. Every element of the environment is regulated. Our work is to structure highly small, clean, and very perfect working on substances and the nanoscale demands it.”
Comprehending how such substances behave is paramount as 2D substances are all surface with no hefty, a range of unique nanoscale properties – magnetic, optical, chemical, thermal, and electronic can be attributed to them. “There is a rule book for the properties of bulk, or three dimensional substances and it comprises huge chunks that are universally comprehended and accepted,” says Thiel, a chemist and materials scientist.
With such a highly regulated and narrowly focused experimental focus in basic science, it could be tempting to assume that their study, like their experiments happen in a vacuum. But Thiel credits the success of surface science at the Ames Laboratory to the close association of varied research groups. “Ames lab is a fertile environment for surface science studies as we have the opportunity to associate directly with numerous researchers in diverse regions of expertise,” says Thiel
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