Van der Waals solids: properties and device applications

Abstract

Recently, layered 2D crystals of other materials similar to graphene have been realized which include insulating hexagonal-BN (band gap (similar to)5.5 eV) and transition metal di-chalcogenides which display properties ranging from semiconducting, superconducting, metallic to insulating. The device applications of such van der Waals solids also show promising characteristics where MoS2 transistors have been formed on flexible and transparent substrates, and transistors derived from 2D monolayers of MoS2 show ON/OFF ratios many orders of magnitude larger than the best graphene transistors. In this paper, an overview of the novel properties of these layered 2D nanomaterials is provided that can enable their device applications in electronics, photonics, sensors and other related applications.