On August 31, Professor Zhou Jiadong and Yao Yugui from the School of Physics of Beijing Institute of Technology, Professor Wu Xiaosong of Peking University, Professor Kazu Suenaga of Osaka University in Japan, and Professor Liu Zheng from Nanyang Technological University in Singapore published an article in "Nature". The hetero-dimensional superstructure consists of 2D VS2 and 1D VS interdigitated to form a new 2D-1D intrinsic hetero-dimensional superstructure. The researchers also observed anomalous Hall effect in the room temperature based on this material. The successful construction of this structure broke through the cognition of traditional materials and structures, and opened up a new direction for the study of new materials and novel properties.

The superlattice structure is a new material formed by the arrangement of different parent materials according to a certain period. The material of this new structure is expected to exhibit novel properties that the parent material does not have, such as ferromagnetism, ferroelectricity and superconductivity. It has potential application value in the fields of electronics, optoelectronics and new information devices. The traditional superlattice structure is mainly formed by substances of the same dimension according to a certain arrangement and combination, such as 3D-3D, 2D-2D and 1D-1D structures. Meanwhile, these conventional superlattice structures are mainly fabricated using molecular beam epitaxy.

According to the introduction of the research group, different from the preparation of traditional superlattice structures, the realization of this new heterodimensional superstructure has three breakthroughs.

The first is a breakthrough in the preparation method. The traditional superstructure preparation mostly uses molecular beam epitaxy; the preparation of superstructures with 2D materials as the parent material is mostly artificial construction, which makes it difficult to control the cleanliness of the material interface, and the intrinsic properties of the material cannot be observed. The preparation of this superstructure provides a direction for the construction of new substances.

The second is the breakthrough of material cognition. Stable hetero-dimensional superstructures are formed by periodically overlapping 2D materials and 1D lines, and the thickness of the structure can be adjusted from tens of nanometers to several nanometers. Breaking through the traditional superstructure of matter can only form simple intercalation of matter of the same dimension or different matter, which has promoted the development of the field of matter.

Finally, the breakthrough of novelty. Due to the existence of 1D VS and mutual coupling with 2D VS2, the 2D-1D heterodimensional superstructure exhibits anomalous in-plane Hall effect at room temperature which is completely different from VS2, V5S8 and other substances. It promotes the coupling between substances of different dimensions, and provides the possibility to realize novel physical properties such as room temperature ferromagnetic semiconductor properties and high temperature quantum anomalous Hall effect.

Related paper information:

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-022-05031-2

(Original title "Scientists Build "Alien-Dimensional Superstructure" for the First Time")