Deterministic Thermal Sculpting of Large-Scale 2D Semiconductor Nanocircuits

TL;DR

This paper presents a scalable method for deterministic thermal sculpting of large-scale 2D TMD nanocircuits, enabling precise nanoscale patterning and integration into advanced electronic and photonic devices.

Contribution

It introduces a combined large-area growth and thermal scanning probe lithography technique for deterministic nanofabrication of 2D TMD structures.

Findings

Successful additive nanofabrication of MoS2 nanostructures

High-resolution local conductivity maps showing competitive transport properties

Demonstration of 2D TMD nanocircuits as building blocks for nano-interconnects

Abstract

Two-dimensional (2D) Transition Metal Dichalcogenide semiconductor (TMDs) nanocircuits are deterministically engineered over large-scale substrates. The original approach combines large-area physical growth of 2D TMDs layer with high resolution thermal - Scanning Probe Lithography (t-SPL), to reshape the ultra-thin semiconducting layers at the nanoscale level. We demonstrate the additive nanofabrication of few-layer MoS2 nanostructures, grown in the 2H-semiconducting TMD phase, as shown by their Raman vibrational fingerprints and by their optoelectronic response. The electronic signatures of the MoS2 nanostructures are locally identified by Kelvin probe force microscopy providing chemical and compositional contrast at the nanometer scale. Finally, the potential role of the 2D TMD nanocircuits as building blocks of deterministic 2D semiconducting interconnections is demonstrated by high-resolution local conductivity maps showing the competitive transport properties of these large-area nanolayers. This work thus provides a powerful approach to scalable nanofabrication of 2D nano-interconnects and van der Waals heterostructures, and to their integration in real-world ultra-compact electronic and photonic nanodevices.