Technique streamlines fabrication of 2-D circuits
Exotic 2-D materials hold great promise for creating atom-thin circuits that could power flexible electronics, optoelectronics, and other next-generation devices. But fabricating complex 2-D circuits requires multiple time-consuming, expensive steps. In a paper published in PNAS, researchers from MIT and elsewhere describe a technique that streamlines the fabrication process, by growing a 2-D material directly onto a patterned substrate and recycling the circuit patterns. The researchers carefully grow a single layer of molybdenum disulfide (MoS2), which is just three atoms thick, onto a growth substrate in a chosen pattern. This approach differs from traditional techniques that grow and etch away a material iteratively, over multiple layers. Those processes take a while and increase the chances of causing surface defects that may hinder the performance of the material. With the new method, using only water, the researchers can transfer the material from its growth substrate to its destination substrate so cleanly that the original...