Rapid fabrication of clean van der Waals nanochannels using Mask and Stack method

TL;DR

The paper presents a rapid, polymer-free method called Mask & Stack for fabricating ultraclean van der Waals nanochannels, enabling scalable production of high-quality nanofluidic devices with preserved interfaces.

Contribution

Introducing the Mask & Stack method that allows fast, contamination-free fabrication of vdW nanochannels compatible with various 2D materials.

Findings

Nanochannels fabricated with the method show reproducible ionic transport.

The process preserves pristine interfaces confirmed by microscopy and spectroscopy.

Devices demonstrate long-term stability and are suitable for high-throughput applications.

Abstract

Two-dimensional (2D) nanochannels have emerged as a pivotal platform for exploring nanoscale hydrodynamics and electrokinetics. Conventional fabrication methods to make nanochannels often introduce polymer contamination and require lengthy processing, limiting device performance and scalability. Here we introduce the Mask & Stack method, employing silicon nitride stencil mask combined with dry transfer stacking to rapidly fabricate ultraclean vdW nanochannels within hours. This polymer-free approach preserves pristine interfaces, confirmed by atomic force microscopy and Raman spectroscopy, and yields nanochannel devices exhibiting reproducible ionic transport and long-term stability. The streamlined process is compatible with diverse 2D materials and promising for upscale production. Our method advances the fabrication of nanofluidic and 2D heterostructure devices, facilitating applications in quantum transport, photonics, energy harvesting, and sensing technologies requiring high-throughput, contamination-free heterostructure architectures.