Abstract
Two-dimensional materials have emerged as an important research frontier for overcoming the challenges in nanoelectronics and for exploring new physics. Among them, black phosphorus, with a combination of a tunable bandgap and high mobility, is one of the most promising systems. In particular, black phosphorus nanoribbons show excellent electrostatic gate control, which can mitigate short-channel effects in nanoscale transistors. Controlled synthesis of black phosphorus nanoribbons, however, has remained an outstanding problem. Here we report large-area growth of black phosphorus nanoribbons directly on insulating substrates. We seed the chemical vapour transport growth with black phosphorus nanoparticles and obtain uniform, single-crystal nanoribbons oriented exclusively along the [100] crystal direction. With comprehensive structural calculations, we discover that self-passivation at the zigzag edges holds the key to the preferential one-dimensional growth. Field-effect transistors based on individual nanoribbons exhibit on/off ratios up to ~104, confirming the good semiconducting behaviour of the nanoribbons. These results demonstrate the potential of black phosphorus nanoribbons for nanoelectronic devices and also provide a platform for investigating the exotic physics in black phosphorus.
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All the data generated and analysed in this study are included in the Article and its Supplementary Information, or via Zenodo at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.10610515. Additional data related to the paper are available from the corresponding authors upon reasonable request.
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Acknowledgements
We thank Z. Zhang, J. Jia, X. Xie and Z. Xu for helpful discussions; L. Wang for helpful calculations; and Z. Jiang, T. Zhang and W. Tang for their help at the initial phase of the project. Part of the sample fabrication was conducted at the Nano-fabrication Laboratory at Fudan University. H.W., Y.S., L.M., N.T., R.Z., W.R. and Y.Z. acknowledge support from the National Key R&D Program of China (grant no. 2018YFA0305600), Strategic Priority Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (grant no. XDB30000000) and Shanghai Municipal Science and Technology Commission (grant no. 2019SHZDZX01). G.H., X.L. and C.Z. acknowledge support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant no. 62171136). F.D., L.Q. and L.D. acknowledge the support of High Talent Support from Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology (grant no. SE3G0991010) and the startup grant from Shenzhen Institute of Advance Technology. S.H. acknowledges the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (grant no. 2020TQ0078). H.Y. is grateful for the financial support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant no. 12074085) and the Natural Science Foundation of Shanghai (grant nos 23XD1400200 and 23JC1401100). X.H.C. acknowledges support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant nos 11888101 and 11534010), the National Key R&D Program of China (grant no. 2017YFA0303001), the Strategic Priority Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (grant no. XDB25000000) and the Key Research Program of Frontier Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences (grant no. QYZDY-SSW-SLH021).
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Y.Z., C.Z., L.D. and X.H.C. supervised the project. H.W. and Y.S. grew the black phosphorus nanoribbons, fabricated FET devices and conducted transport and infrared spectroscopy measurements. G.H., X.L. and C.Z. performed the TEM characterization. F.D., L.Q. and L.D. carried out the theoretical calculations. S.H. and H.Y. helped with infrared spectroscopy measurements. L.M. and R.Z. helped with sample growth. N.T. helped with fabricating and measuring FET devices. H.W., Y.S., W.R. and Y.Z. wrote the manuscript with input from all authors.
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Wang, H., Song, Y., Huang, G. et al. Seeded growth of single-crystal black phosphorus nanoribbons. Nat. Mater. 23, 470–478 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41563-024-01830-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41563-024-01830-2
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