Synthesis and electronic structure of atomically thin 2H-MoTe<sub>2</sub>

An in-depth understanding of the electronic structure of 2H-MoTe<sub>2</sub> at the atomic layer limit is a crucial step towards its exploitation in nanoscale devices. Here, we show that millimeter-sized monolayer (ML) MoTe<sub>2</sub> samples, as well as smaller sized bilayer (BL) samples, can be obtained using the mechanical exfoliation technique. The electronic structure of these materials is investigated by angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES) for the first time and by density functional theory (DFT) calculations. The comparison between experiments and theory allows us to describe ML MoTe<sub>2</sub> as a semiconductor with a direct gap at the K point. This scenario is reinforced by the experimental observation of the conduction band minimum at K in Rb-doped ML MoTe<sub>2</sub>, resulting in a gap of at least 0.924 eV. In the BL MoTe<sub>2</sub> system, the maxima of the bands at Γ and K show very similar energies, thus leaving the door open to a direct gap scenario, in analogy to WSe<sub>2</sub>. The monotonic increase in the separation between spin-split bands at K while moving from ML to BL and bulk-like MoTe<sub>2</sub> is attributed to interlayer coupling. Our findings can be considered as a reference to understand quantum anomalous and fractional quantum anomalous Hall effects recently discovered in ML and BL MoTe<sub>2</sub> based moiré heterostructures.

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Publication Details

Journal
Nanoscale
Published
2025-01-01
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1039/d4nr05191b
Citations
5
Primary Topic
2D Materials and Applications
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
2.59

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Synthesis and electronic structure of atomically thin 2H-MoTe2

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Synthesis and electronic structure of atomically thin 2H-MoTe2

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article en
5 citations

Abstract

An in-depth understanding of the electronic structure of 2H-MoTe<sub>2</sub> at the atomic layer limit is a crucial step towards its exploitation in nanoscale devices. Here, we show that millimeter-sized monolayer (ML) MoTe<sub>2</sub> samples, as well as smaller sized bilayer (BL) samples, can be obtained using the mechanical exfoliation technique. The electronic structure of these materials is investigated by angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES) for the first time and by density functional theory (DFT) calculations. The comparison between experiments and theory allows us to describe ML MoTe<sub>2</sub> as a semiconductor with a direct gap at the K point. This scenario is reinforced by the experimental observation of the conduction band minimum at K in Rb-doped ML MoTe<sub>2</sub>, resulting in a gap of at least 0.924 eV. In the BL MoTe<sub>2</sub> system, the maxima of the bands at Γ and K show very similar energies, thus leaving the door open to a direct gap scenario, in analogy to WSe<sub>2</sub>. The monotonic increase in the separation between spin-split bands at K while moving from ML to BL and bulk-like MoTe<sub>2</sub> is attributed to interlayer coupling. Our findings can be considered as a reference to understand quantum anomalous and fractional quantum anomalous Hall effects recently discovered in ML and BL MoTe<sub>2</sub> based moiré heterostructures.

NanoscaleVol. 17(17)
Hiroshima University (JP), Beijing Institute of Technology (CN), Shandong University (CN), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CN), Institute of Structure of Matter (IT), Songshan Lake Materials Laboratory (CN), Institute of High Energy Physics (CN), Technical Institute of Physics and Chemistry (CN), Beijing Academy of Quantum Information Sciences (CN), Institute of Physics (CN), National Laboratory for Superconductivity (CN), University of Chinese Academy of Sciences (CN), Renmin University of China (CN)
National Natural Science Foundation of China, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Youth Innovation Promotion Association of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, National Key Research and Development Program of China, Youth Innovation Promotion Association
Openalex Percentile: Top 11%
2D Materials and Applications
2.59
DOIOpen Access PDFOpenAlex
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