Polymer-assisted transfer of MBE-grown van der Waals materials

Molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) has been used to create high-quality and large-scale two-dimensional van der Waals materials (2D vdW materials). However, due to the strong adhesion between the substrate and depositing materials, it's difficult to peel off and transfer MBE-grown vdW films onto other substrates compared to conventional chemical vapor deposition (CVD) growth. This limits further study and application in heterogeneous integration. We developed a polymer-assisted dry transfer method to successfully transfer various MBE-grown 2D vdW materials, including transition metal dichalcogenides, topological insulators and 2D magnets [1]. Particularly, we transferred air-sensitive 2D magnets, characterized the magnetic properties and compared with as-grown materials. The results show that our transfer technique doesn't degrade magnetic properties. We find that the Curie temperature and hysteresis loops exhibit negligible changes from the transfer. Our study contributes to the development of heterogenous integration of 2D vdW materials based on MBE growth.

References:

[1] Zhou, Wenyi, et al. "Tuning the Curie temperature of a two-dimensional magnet/topological insulator heterostructure to above room temperature by epitaxial growth." Physical Review Materials 7.10 (2023): 104004.