Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California, Irvine, Irvine, CA, USA.
Research Center for Functional Materials, National Institute for Materials Science, 1-1 Namiki, Tsukuba, Japan.
Sci Adv. 2023 Apr 7;9(14):eadf9558. doi: 10.1126/sciadv.adf9558.
Interfaces of van der Waals (vdW) materials, such as graphite and hexagonal boron nitride (hBN), exhibit low-friction sliding due to their atomically flat surfaces and weak vdW bonding. We demonstrate that microfabricated gold also slides with low friction on hBN. This enables the arbitrary post-fabrication repositioning of device features both at ambient conditions and in situ to a measurement cryostat. We demonstrate mechanically reconfigurable vdW devices where device geometry and position are continuously tunable parameters. By fabricating slidable top gates on a graphene-hBN device, we produce a mechanically tunable quantum point contact where electron confinement and edge-state coupling can be continuously modified. Moreover, we combine in situ sliding with simultaneous electronic measurements to create new types of scanning probe experiments, where gate electrodes and even entire vdW heterostructure devices can be spatially scanned by sliding across a target.
范德华（vdW）材料的界面，如石墨和六方氮化硼（hBN），由于其原子级平坦的表面和较弱的 vdW 键，表现出低摩擦滑动。我们证明，微加工的金也可以在 hBN 上低摩擦滑动。这使得在环境条件和原位测量低温恒温器中，设备特征可以任意进行后期制造的重新定位。我们展示了机械可重构的 vdW 器件，其中器件几何形状和位置是连续可调的参数。通过在石墨烯-hBN 器件上制造可滑动的顶栅，我们生产出一种机械可调谐的量子点接触，其中电子限制和边缘态耦合可以连续修改。此外，我们将原位滑动与同时进行的电子测量相结合，创建了新型的扫描探针实验，其中栅极电极甚至整个 vdW 异质结构器件都可以通过在目标上滑动来进行空间扫描。
