Luminescent Surfaces with Tailored Angular Emission for Compact Dark-Field Imaging Devices.

Dark-field microscopy is a standard imaging technique widely employed in biology that provides high image contrast for a broad range of unstained specimens1. Unlike bright-field microscopy, it accentuates high spatial frequencies and can therefore be used to emphasize and resolve small features. However, the use of dark-field microscopy for reliable analysis of blood cells, bacteria, algae, and other marine organisms often requires specialized, bulky microscope systems, and expensive additional components, such as dark-field-compatible objectives or condensers2,3. Here, we propose to simplify and downsize dark-field microscopy equipment by generating the high-angle illumination cone required for dark field microscopy directly within the sample substrate. We introduce a luminescent photonic substrate with a controlled angular emission profile and demonstrate its ability to generate high-contrast dark-field images of micrometre-sized living organisms using standard optical microscopy equipment. This new type of substrate forms the basis for miniaturized lab-on-chip dark-field imaging devices, compatible with simple and compact light microscopes.

Integration of bulk materials with two-dimensional materials for physical coupling and applications.

Hybrid heterostructures are essential for functional device systems. The advent of 2D materials has broadened the material set beyond conventional 3D material-based heterostructures. It has triggered the fundamental investigation and use in applications of new coupling phenomena between 3D bulk materials and 2D atomic layers that have unique van der Waals features. Here we review the state-of-the-art fabrication of 2D and 3D heterostructures, present a critical survey of unique phenomena arising from forming 3D/2D interfaces, and introduce their applications. We also discuss potential directions for research based on these new coupled architectures.

Polarity governs atomic interaction through two-dimensional materials.

The transparency of two-dimensional (2D) materials to intermolecular interactions of crystalline materials has been an unresolved topic. Here we report that remote atomic interaction through 2D materials is governed by the binding nature, that is, the polarity of atomic bonds, both in the underlying substrates and in 2D material interlayers. Although the potential field from covalent-bonded materials is screened by a monolayer of graphene, that from ionic-bonded materials is strong enough to penetrate through a few layers of graphene. Such field penetration is substantially attenuated by 2D hexagonal boron nitride, which itself has polarization in its atomic bonds. Based on the control of transparency, modulated by the nature of materials as well as interlayer thickness, various types of single-crystalline materials across the periodic table can be epitaxially grown on 2D material-coated substrates. The epitaxial films can subsequently be released as free-standing membranes, which provides unique opportunities for the heterointegration of arbitrary single-crystalline thin films in functional applications.

SiGe epitaxial memory for neuromorphic computing with reproducible high performance based on engineered dislocations.

Although several types of architecture combining memory cells and transistors have been used to demonstrate artificial synaptic arrays, they usually present limited scalability and high power consumption. Transistor-free analog switching devices may overcome these limitations, yet the typical switching process they rely on-formation of filaments in an amorphous medium-is not easily controlled and hence hampers the spatial and temporal reproducibility of the performance. Here, we demonstrate analog resistive switching devices that possess desired characteristics for neuromorphic computing networks with minimal performance variations using a single-crystalline SiGe layer epitaxially grown on Si as a switching medium. Such epitaxial random access memories utilize threading dislocations in SiGe to confine metal filaments in a defined, one-dimensional channel. This confinement results in drastically enhanced switching uniformity and long retention/high endurance with a high analog on/off ratio. Simulations using the MNIST handwritten recognition data set prove that epitaxial random access memories can operate with an online learning accuracy of 95.1%.

Unveiling the carrier transport mechanism in epitaxial graphene for forming wafer-scale, single-domain graphene.

Graphene epitaxy on the Si face of a SiC wafer offers monolayer graphene with unique crystal orientation at the wafer-scale. However, due to carrier scattering near vicinal steps and excess bilayer stripes, the size of electrically uniform domains is limited to the width of the terraces extending up to a few microns. Nevertheless, the origin of carrier scattering at the SiC vicinal steps has not been clarified so far. A layer-resolved graphene transfer (LRGT) technique enables exfoliation of the epitaxial graphene formed on SiC wafers and transfer to flat Si wafers, which prepares crystallographically single-crystalline monolayer graphene. Because the LRGT flattens the deformed graphene at the terrace edges and permits an access to the graphene formed at the side wall of vicinal steps, components that affect the mobility of graphene formed near the vicinal steps of SiC could be individually investigated. Here, we reveal that the graphene formed at the side walls of step edges is pristine, and scattering near the steps is mainly attributed by the deformation of graphene at step edges of vicinalized SiC while partially from stripes of bilayer graphene. This study suggests that the two-step LRGT can prepare electrically single-domain graphene at the wafer-scale by removing the major possible sources of electrical degradation.

Remote epitaxy through graphene enables two-dimensional material-based layer transfer.

Epitaxy-the growth of a crystalline material on a substrate-is crucial for the semiconductor industry, but is often limited by the need for lattice matching between the two material systems. This strict requirement is relaxed for van der Waals epitaxy, in which epitaxy on layered or two-dimensional (2D) materials is mediated by weak van der Waals interactions, and which also allows facile layer release from 2D surfaces. It has been thought that 2D materials are the only seed layers for van der Waals epitaxy. However, the substrates below 2D materials may still interact with the layers grown during epitaxy (epilayers), as in the case of the so-called wetting transparency documented for graphene. Here we show that the weak van der Waals potential of graphene cannot completely screen the stronger potential field of many substrates, which enables epitaxial growth to occur despite its presence. We use density functional theory calculations to establish that adatoms will experience remote epitaxial registry with a substrate through a substrate-epilayer gap of up to nine ångströms; this gap can accommodate a monolayer of graphene. We confirm the predictions with homoepitaxial growth of GaAs(001) on GaAs(001) substrates through monolayer graphene, and show that the approach is also applicable to InP and GaP. The grown single-crystalline films are rapidly released from the graphene-coated substrate and perform as well as conventionally prepared films when incorporated in light-emitting devices. This technique enables any type of semiconductor film to be copied from underlying substrates through 2D materials, and then the resultant epilayer to be rapidly released and transferred to a substrate of interest. This process is particularly attractive in the context of non-silicon electronics and photonics, where the ability to re-use the graphene-coated substrates allows savings on the high cost of non-silicon substrates.