@article{Li2022, 
author = {Lin Li and Jichen Dong and Dechao Geng and Menghan Li and Wei Fu and Feng Ding and Wenping Hu and Hui Ying Yang},
title = {Multi-stage anisotropic etching of two-dimensional heterostructures},
year = {2022},
journal = {Nano Research},
volume = {15},
number = {6},
pages = {4909-4915},
keywords = {anisotropic etching, two-dimensional materials, heterostructures, graphene, h-BN},
url = {https://www.sciopen.com/article/10.1007/s12274-022-4193-x},
doi = {10.1007/s12274-022-4193-x},
abstract = {Regarding the reverse process of materials growth, etching has been widely concerned to indirectly probe the growth kinetics, offering an avenue in governing the growth of two-dimensional (2D) materials. In this work, interface-driven anisotropic etching mode is demonstrated for the first time to be generally applied to 2D heterostructures. It is shown that the typical in-plane graphene and hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) heterostructures follow a multi-stage etching behavior initiated first along the interfacial region between the two materials and then along edges of neighboring h-BN flakes and finally along central edges of h-BN. By accurately tuning etching conditions in the chemical vapor deposition process, series of etched 2D heterostructure patterns are controllably produced. Furthermore, scaled formation of graphene and h-BN heterostructures arrays has been realized with full assist of as-proposed etching mechanism, offering a direct top-down method to make 2D orientated heterostructures with order and complexity. Detection of interface-driven multi-staged anisotropic etching mode will shed light on understanding growth mechanism and further expanding wide applications of 2D heterostructures.}
}