Producing air-stable monolayers of phosphorene and their defect engineering

It has been a long-standing challenge to produce air-stable few- or monolayer samples of phosphorene because thin phosphorene films degrade rapidly in ambient conditions. Here we demonstrate a new highly controllable method for fabricating high quality, air-stable phosphorene films with a designated number of layers ranging from a few down to monolayer. Our approach involves the use of oxygen plasma dry etching to thin down thick-exfoliated phosphorene flakes, layer by layer with atomic precision. Moreover, in a stabilized phosphorene monolayer, we were able to precisely engineer defects for the first time, which led to efficient emission of photons at new frequencies in the near infrared at room temperature.…

• AN
  Australian National University

  Award: CE110001018
• CS
  China Scholarship Council
• AR
  Australian Research Council

  Awards: FT110100853, DE140100805, Future Fellowship FT110100853, DP130100086, CE110001018