Intelligent self-correcting growth of uniform Bernal-stacked bi-/trilayer graphene
State-of-the-art synthesis strategies of two-dimensional (2D) materials have been designed following the nucleation-dominant pattern for structure control. However, this classical methodology fails to achieve the precise layer- and stacking-resolved growth of wafer-scale few-layer 2D materials due to its intrinsically low energy resolution. Here, we present an intelligent self-correcting method for the high-resolution growth of uniform few-layer graphene. We demonstrate the layer-resolved growth of wafer-scale bilayer and trilayer graphene (BLG and TLG) with selective Bernal stacking through spontaneous correction of the single-layer graphene film with disordered multilayer graphene islands. Theoretical calculations reveal that the self-correcting growth is driven by the stepwise energy minimization of the closed system and kinetically activated by forming a low-barrier pathway for the carbon detachment-diffusion-attachment. Such uniform Bernal-stacked BLG and TLG films show high quality with distinct quantum Hall effect being observed. Our work opens an avenue for developing an intelligent methodology to realize the precise synthesis of diverse 2D materials.
Authors
- Feng Ding (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0009-9232-6545)
- Wencai Ren (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4997-8870)
- Tiannan Han
- Han Yan (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8293-1543)
- Lai‐Peng Ma (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8866-6063)
- Xiao Kong
- Hui–Ming Cheng (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5387-4241)
- Zhibo Liu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9210-156X)
- Wei Ma (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8034-1865)
- Chao Zhu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1589-855X)
- Zheng Liu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6488-2151)
Institutions
- University of Science and Technology of China (CN)
- National University of Singapore (SG)
- Nanyang Technological University (SG)
- Chinese Academy of Sciences (CN)
- Thales (Australia) (AU)
- Centre National pour la Recherche Scientifique et Technique (CNRST) (MA)
- Suzhou Research Institute (CN)
- Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology (CN)
- Shanghai Institute of Microsystem and Information Technology (CN)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
- Published
- 2025-04-29
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2419968122
- Citations
- 1
- Primary Topic
- Graphene research and applications
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.52
Funders
- National Natural Science Foundation of China
- Chinese Academy of Sciences
- Liaoning Revitalization Talents Program
- National Key Research and Development Program of China