Electrochemical exfoliation and nanodevice fabrication of 2D materials

Abstract

The use of 2-Dimensional (2D) Transition Metal Dichalcogenides (TMDs) materials have been drawing attention to many researchers in recent years, since the discovery of 2D materials in 2004. There have been many techniques being shown to study the properties and applications of 2D materials. Mechanical exfoliation is one of the methods used in separating bulk 2D materials into monolayers. In this project, the exfoliation of MoTe2 to thin layers using mechanical and electrochemical exfoliation techniques is presented. Several ways of determining the thickness of MoTe2 after exfoliation were also employed. The techniques include an optical microscope, an Atomic Force Microscope (AFM). In addition, MoTe2 field-effect transistors (FETs) were also fabricated and characterized in this project. The DC performance of the FETs will also be highlighted through the means of a semiconductor device analyzer to determine if MoTe2 exhibits semiconductor or insulator behavior.