Dr. Elena Blundo

How can two-dimensional superlattices, periodic structures which enlarge the unit cell, be used to tune the electronic properties of materials?

📍Where? Seminar room at ZQE (here!), Garching-Forschungszentrum
⏰ When? Thursday, 7th May at 18:00
‍🍪 Social: There will be snacks and coffee!
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Elena Blundo
Walter Schottky Institute, TUM, Von Humboldt Fellow under Prof. Jonathan Finley

Weak-but-strong, van der Waals (vdW) forces thread through nature, manifesting, for instance, in geckos’ feet, liquids, and the DNA double helix. Remarkably, they can also be found in crystalline materials. In the so-called vdW materials, each crystal layer consists of covalently bound atoms, while the layers themselves are held together by vdW interactions. This has enabled the exfoliation of atomically-thin, two-dimensional (2D) crystals, opening the door to a burgeoning field of research.

2D materials open new opportunities for matter manipulation at the nanoscale, far beyond what conventional covalent materials allow. vdW interactions enable the creation of heterostructures by just putting one material on top of another, and thus with unprecedented freedom in the choice of the materials and even in their rotational alignment.

In this talk, we will explore how assembling different vdW crystals gives rise to entirely new materials. The opto-electronic properties of these heterostructures differ strikingly from those of their constituent materials, as interlayer interactions unlock the formation of new electron-hole states with distinct energy, lifetime, spin-valley selection rules, and spatial confinement, thereby affecting light absorption and emission. We will show how the system’s interaction with light can be exploited to reveal the properties of these new electronic configurations.