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Nano Research 2017, 10(4): 1336-1344 https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-017-1442-5
Research Article | Issue | Published: 21 February 2017

Realization of vertical and lateral van der Waals heterojunctions using two-dimensional layered organic semiconductors

Show Author's Information Yuhan Zhang1,§,  Zhongzhong Luo1,§,  Fengrui Hu2,  Haiyan Nan3,  Xiaoyong Wang2,  Zhenhua Ni3,  Jianbin Xu4,1,  Yi Shi1( ),  Xinran Wang1( )
National Laboratory of Solid State Microstructures School of Electronic Science and Engineering and Collaborative Innovation Center of Advanced Microstructures Nanjing UniversityNanjing210093China
School of Physics Nanjing UniversityNanjing210093China
Department of Physics Southeast UniversityNanjing211189China
Department of Electronic Engineering and Materials Science and Technology Research Center The Chinese University of Hong KongHong Kong SARChina

§These authors contributed equally to this work.

Keywords:
two-dimensional, van der Waals epitaxy, organic semiconductor, heterojunctions
Cite this article:
Zhang Y, Luo Z, Hu F, et al. Realization of vertical and lateral van der Waals heterojunctions using two-dimensional layered organic semiconductors. Nano Research, 2017, 10(4): 1336-1344. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-017-1442-5
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Abstract Full text Electronic supplementary material About this article

Van der Waals (vdW) heterojunctions based on two-dimensional (2D) atomic crystals have been extensively studied in recent years. Herein, we show that both vertical and lateral vdW heterojunctions can be realized with layered molecular crystals using a two-step physical vapor transport (PVT) process. Both types of heterojunctions show clean and sharp interfaces without phase mixing under atomic force microscopy (AFM). They also exhibit a strong interfacial built-in electric field similar to that of their inorganic counterparts. These heterojunctions have greater potential for device applications than individual materials. The lateral heterojunction (LHJ) devices show rectifying characteristics due to the asymmetric energy barrier for holes at the interface, while the vertical heterojunction (VHJ) devices behave like metal–insulator–semiconductor tunnel junctions, with pronounced negative differential conductance (NDC). Our work extends the concept of vdW heterojunctions to molecular materials, which can be generalized to other layered organic semiconductors (OSCs) to obtain new device functionalities.


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About this article

Realization of vertical and lateral van der Waals heterojunctions using two-dimensional layered organic semiconductors

Show Author's information Yuhan Zhang1,§, Zhongzhong Luo1,§, Fengrui Hu2, Haiyan Nan3, Xiaoyong Wang2, Zhenhua Ni3, Jianbin Xu4,1, Yi Shi1( ), Xinran Wang1( )
National Laboratory of Solid State Microstructures School of Electronic Science and Engineering and Collaborative Innovation Center of Advanced Microstructures Nanjing UniversityNanjing210093China
School of Physics Nanjing UniversityNanjing210093China
Department of Physics Southeast UniversityNanjing211189China
Department of Electronic Engineering and Materials Science and Technology Research Center The Chinese University of Hong KongHong Kong SARChina

§These authors contributed equally to this work.

Abstract

Van der Waals (vdW) heterojunctions based on two-dimensional (2D) atomic crystals have been extensively studied in recent years. Herein, we show that both vertical and lateral vdW heterojunctions can be realized with layered molecular crystals using a two-step physical vapor transport (PVT) process. Both types of heterojunctions show clean and sharp interfaces without phase mixing under atomic force microscopy (AFM). They also exhibit a strong interfacial built-in electric field similar to that of their inorganic counterparts. These heterojunctions have greater potential for device applications than individual materials. The lateral heterojunction (LHJ) devices show rectifying characteristics due to the asymmetric energy barrier for holes at the interface, while the vertical heterojunction (VHJ) devices behave like metal–insulator–semiconductor tunnel junctions, with pronounced negative differential conductance (NDC). Our work extends the concept of vdW heterojunctions to molecular materials, which can be generalized to other layered organic semiconductors (OSCs) to obtain new device functionalities.

Keywords: two-dimensional, van der Waals epitaxy, organic semiconductor, heterojunctions

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Publication history
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Acknowledgements

Publication history

Received: 09 November 2016
Revised: 20 December 2016
Accepted: 28 December 2016
Published: 21 February 2017
Issue date: April 2017

Copyright

© Tsinghua University Press and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2017

Acknowledgements

Acknowledgements

This work was supported in part by National Basic Research Program of China (Nos. 2013CBA01604 and 2015CB921600), National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 61325020, 61261160499, 11274154, and 61521001), Research Grant Council of Hong Kong (No. SARN_CUHK405/12), Collaborative Innovation Center of Solid-State Lighting and Energy-Saving Electronics, "Jiangsu Shuangchuang" program and "Jiangsu Shuangchuang Team" Program.

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