Opportunities in Electrically Tunable 2D Materials Beyond Graphene: Recent Progress and Future Outlook

TL;DR

This review discusses recent advances in electrically tunable properties of 2D materials beyond graphene, highlighting new opportunities for device applications and future research directions in this rapidly evolving field.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive overview of the progress in synthesizing and utilizing diverse 2D materials with tunable electronic, magnetic, and optical properties for advanced device functionalities.

Findings

Development of high-quality synthesis methods for new 2D materials

Demonstration of electrical control over spin, valley, and excitonic properties

Identification of promising applications in tunable electronic and optoelectronic devices

Abstract

The interest in two-dimensional and layered materials continues to expand, driven by the compelling properties of individual atomic layers that can be stacked and/or twisted into synthetic heterostructures. The plethora of electronic properties as well as the emergence of many different quasiparticles, including plasmons, polaritons, trions and excitons with large, tunable binding energies that all can be controlled and modulated through electrical means has given rise to many device applications. In addition, these materials exhibit both room-temperature spin and valley polarization, magnetism, superconductivity, piezoelectricity that are intricately dependent on the composition, crystal structure, stacking, twist angle, layer number and phases of these materials. Initial results on graphene exfoliated from single bulk crystals motivated the development of wide-area, high purity synthesis and heterojunctions with atomically clean interfaces. Now by opening this design space to new synthetic two-dimensional materials "beyond graphene", it is possible to explore uncharted opportunities in designing novel heterostructures for electrical tunable devices. To fully reveal the emerging functionalities and opportunities of these atomically thin materials in practical applications, this review highlights several representative and noteworthy research directions in the use of electrical means to tune these aforementioned physical and structural properties, with an emphasis on discussing major applications of beyond graphene 2D materials in tunable devices in the past few years and an outlook of what is to come in the next decade.