Stack growth of wafer-scale van der Waals superconductor heterostructures

Zhenjia Zhou, Fuchen Hou, Xianlei Huang, Gang Wang, Zihao Fu, Weilin Liu, Guowen Yuan, Xiaoxiang Xi, Jie Xu (), Junhao Lin () and Libo Gao ()
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Zhenjia Zhou: Nanjing University
Fuchen Hou: Southern University of Science and Technology
Xianlei Huang: Nanjing University
Gang Wang: Southern University of Science and Technology
Zihao Fu: Nanjing University
Weilin Liu: Nanjing University
Guowen Yuan: Nanjing University
Xiaoxiang Xi: Nanjing University
Jie Xu: Nanjing University
Junhao Lin: Southern University of Science and Technology
Libo Gao: Nanjing University

Nature, 2023, vol. 621, issue 7979, 499-505

Abstract: Abstract Two-dimensional (2D) van der Waals (vdW) heterostructures have attracted considerable attention in recent years1–5. The most widely used method of fabrication is to stack mechanically exfoliated micrometre-sized flakes6–18, but this process is not scalable for practical applications. Despite thousands of 2D materials being created, using various stacking combinations1–3,19–21, hardly any large 2D superconductors can be stacked intact into vdW heterostructures, greatly restricting the applications for such devices. Here we report a high-to-low temperature strategy for controllably growing stacks of multiple-layered vdW superconductor heterostructure (vdWSH) films at a wafer scale. The number of layers of 2D superconductors in the vdWSHs can be precisely controlled, and we have successfully grown 27 double-block, 15 triple-block, 5 four-block and 3 five-block vdWSH films (where one block represents one 2D material). Morphological, spectroscopic and atomic-scale structural analyses reveal the presence of parallel, clean and atomically sharp vdW interfaces on a large scale, with very little contamination between neighbouring layers. The intact vdW interfaces allow us to achieve proximity-induced superconductivity and superconducting Josephson junctions on a centimetre scale. Our process for making multiple-layered vdWSHs can easily be generalized to other situations involving 2D materials, potentially accelerating the design of next-generation functional devices and applications22–24.

Date: 2023
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DOI: 10.1038/s41586-023-06404-x

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