Bandgap engineering for 2D materials for device applications

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Solid state devices are the backbone of all the modern electronics. The device properties inherently depend upon the quality of the semiconductor properties and quality. Inorganic semiconductor materials like silicon, GaAs, Ge to name a few have been used for high performance devices for the past several decades. As the device dimensions have shrunk there has been a quest for newer materials for devices. Also, there are more flexible electronics and integration of bio wearables with electronics which require different materials to be used. 2-dimensional materials are unique and offer several advantages which can be exploited for device applications. These materials have covalent bonding between the atoms within a monolayer but Van der Waal forces between two monolayers. This makes them achievable in monolayer thickness far more easily as compared to the traditional inorganic semiconductors like silicon, germanium etc. The family of 2-dimensional materials includes semiconductors, dielectrics, and semi-metals. The 2- dimensional semiconductors offer high mobility and many of them are tunable bandgap with the number of monolayers. This offers another the advantage of using them as direct bandgap materials for light emitting applications like LED's and for electronic devices as they have high intrinsic mobility which leads to fast speed devices. In this proposal, 2-dimensional materials will be grown under high vacuum environment using pulsed laser deposition. This will produce high quality large area material which will be used for device applications. In addition, heterostructures which include two types of 2-dimensional materials will be grown in-situ, which will be used to develop optical resonators. These materials will be characterised to understand their material, electrical and optical properties which will provide feedback to optimize the growth and develop high-performance optical and electronic devices. These 2D material devices can be applied for a variety of applications ranging from optoelectronics to biosensing. We will focus on two applications here, namely, developing heterostructure transistors that can be used for biosensing applications and optoelectronic devices that can be used for flexible electronics. The development of these materials will help strengthen the area of nanomaterials and nanodevices, which are important areas for economic diversification. Both Alberta and Canada will benefit from the development of this area of materials and devices. Electronic and optoelectronic devices have huge market and for applications in flexible electronics including displays, electronics and biosensors, this market is expected to grow to ~$42B by 2027 with a growth of 7.4% from 2020. Thus, this is an important thrust area and a novel technology; including material growth and device development will be a very important step for the nanotechnology sector both in Alberta and for Canada.