Influence of Disorder on the Electronic Properties and Magnetotransport of Ti3C2T x Single-Flake Devices

TL;DR

This study explores how structural disorder affects the electronic and magnetic transport properties of single-flake Ti3C2Tx MXene devices.

Contribution

The paper reveals a metal-to-disordered metal transition in Ti3C2Tx MXene through controlled defect density manipulation.

Findings

Negative magnetoresistance in Ti3C2Tx single-flake devices is attributed to weak localization effects.

Thermal annealing increases defect density, inducing a metal-to-disordered metal transition.

Quantum transport phenomena are observed in Ti3C2Tx when intrinsic electronic behavior dominates.

Abstract

The exploration of MXenes for electronic applications
is a rapidly
growing field in materials science. However, most research has focused
on MXene films, with only a limited number of studies addressing the
characterization of single-flake devices. In this work, we investigate
the electronic and magnetotransport properties of Ti3C2T
x
single-flake devices, exploring
the influence of structural defectivity on their transport mechanisms.
We show that negative magnetoresistance present at low temperatures
in single flake samples arises from weak localization, which we analyze
to extract the phase coherence length of single-layer and multi-layer
flakes. The study of magnetoresistance for this metallic MXene shows
that the material exhibits quantum transport phenomena when intrinsic
electronic behavior dominates. Moreover, by increasing the defect
density via thermal annealing in ultrahigh vacuum, we uncover and
characterize the metal-to-disordered metal transition in Ti3C2T
x
, shedding light on new
properties and enriching fundamental knowledge about MXenes.

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