Gecko Inspired Autonomous Fabrication Of Programmable Two-dimensional Quantum Materials

原子薄材料提供了广泛的基本半导体器件构建块，具有体块中不存在的独特的电子和光学特性。值得注意的是，原子片可以不受限制地堆叠在一起，形成具有前所未有的性质和能力的异质结构。到目前为止，只由几个单独的原子层组成的异质结构器件在光子学、电子学和量子材料方面取得了非凡的突破。一个诱人的梦想是超越这些几层系统，构建由数十、数百甚至数千层原子层组成的设计师材料，每一层都被精确地选择和放置。不幸的是，最先进的逐层制造此类结构的方法繁琐，成品率低，并且不能在量子水平上重现。受自然的启发，2D-Gecko的目标是彻底改变异质结构的逐层制造，以实现高度可重复性的材料和无限复杂的器件。我们将率先使用类似于壁虎的微纤维阵列，实现可通过机械驱动切换的可逆粘附性，从而率先实现单个原子片的智能拾取和放置组装。我们将把这项技术纳入一条完全自主的试验线，将所有组装步骤的机器人控制与高效的计算机视觉、机器智能算法和用于质量控制的现场计量技术相结合。这条试验线将被用来制造高度可调的量子材料，这些材料基于具有相对扭曲的堆积层(所谓的莫尔异质结构)，以可重现和确定的方式进行。最终，我们的目标是实现可伸缩的莫尔材料，在量子水平上具有重复性，这样就可以实现可编程的三维莫尔固体。

Atomically thin materials provide a wide range of fundamental semiconductor device building blocks with unique electronic and optical properties which do not exist in the bulk. Remarkably, the atomic sheets can be stacked together without restriction to form heterostructures with unprecedented properties and capabilities. To date, heterostructure devices consisting of only a handful of individual atomic layers have led to extraordinary breakthroughs in photonics, electronics, and quantum materials. A tantalizing dream is to go beyond these few-layer systems and construct designer materials comprised of tens, hundreds, or even thousands of atomic layers, each precisely chosen and placed. Unfortunately, state-of-the-art layer-by-layer fabrication of such structures is tedious, low-yield, and not reproducible at the quantum level.Inspired by nature, 2D-Gecko aims to revolutionize the layer-by-layer-fabrication of heterostructures to realize highly reproducible materials and devices of limitless complexity. We will pioneer "smart" pick-and-place assembly of individual atomic sheets using microfibril arrays, similar to a gecko, to achieve reversible adhesion - switchable via mechanical actuation. We will incorporate this technology into a fully autonomous pilot line, combining robotic control of all assembly steps with efficient computer-vision, machine intelligence algorithms, and in-situ metrology techniques for quality control. The pilot line will be exploited to fabricate highly tunable quantum materials based on stacking layers with a relative twist (so-called moiré heterostructures) in a reproducible and deterministic fashion. Ultimately, we aim to realize scalable moiré materials, with reproducibility at the quantum level, such that programmable three-dimensional moiré solids can be realized.