Scalable Integration of Lateral van der Waals Heterostructure Arrays via a Self-Aligned Approach

Two-dimensional (2D) material lateral van der Waals heterostructures (vdWHs) have emerged as promising platforms for high-performance nano devices and the exploration of novel physical phenomena. However, their fabrication remains highly challenging owing to the difficulty of achieving nanoscale precision in material transfer and alignment. Here, we report a self-aligned fabrication method compatible with semiconductor manufacturing for the large-scale fabrication of 2D material lateral vdWH arrays. Using this approach, we realize over 800 lateral MoS₂/graphene vdWHs on a 1 cm × 1 cm Si/SiO₂ substrate. Compared with the vertical MoS₂/graphene vdWH device, the lateral device shows a six-order-of-magnitude reduction in dark current density and a three-order-of-magnitude enhancement in the normalized photocurrent-to-dark-current ratio. The fabricated photodetector array features minimal device-to-device variation, a yield close to unity with high uniformity, and excellent imaging performance. This scalable strategy can be readily extended to other 2D materials, offering new opportunities for next-generation functional device design.