Synthesis and structural characterization of the single chain limit of van der Waals materials

ORAL

Abstract

The successful isolation of a single layer of van der Waals (vdW) materials, such as graphene and transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs), and the renewed interests in their emergent properties in the atomically thin limit have motivated the exploration of other vdW materials. Transition metal trichalcogenides (TMTs), such as niobium triselenide (NbSe3), are closely related quasi one-dimensional (1-D) vdW materials consisting of trigonal prismatic chains binding together by weak vdW interaction. The bulk TMTs abound with peculiar properties, such as sliding charge density wave and superconductivity.
In our talk, I will present our recent effort in isolation and study of the single chain of these 1-D vdW materials encapsulated within carbon and boron nitride nanotubes. In the single chain limit of NbSe3, we found an unusual structural helical torsional wave not seen in bulk NbSe3 crystal, by aberration-corrected transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Density functional theory (DFT) calculation shows that the charge transfer from the encapsulating nanotubes to the single chain induces such torsional wave. We term the phenomenon Charge-induced Torsional Wave (CTW). I will also discuss our efforts in synthesis of other TMTs, beyond NbSe3, in the single chain limit.

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Presenters

  • Thang Pham

    University of California, Berkeley, Physics, University of California, Berkeley

Authors

  • Thang Pham

    University of California, Berkeley, Physics, University of California, Berkeley

  • Sehoon Oh

    University of California, Berkeley, Department of Physics, University of California at Berkeley

  • Scott Meyer

    University of California, Berkeley

  • Brian Shevitski

    University of California, Berkeley

  • Kyunghoon Lee

    University of California, Berkeley, Physics, University of California, Berkeley

  • Jeffrey Cain

    University of California, Berkeley

  • Chengyu Song

    Molecular Foundry, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Molecular Foundry, Lawrence Berkeley National Lab

  • Peter Ercius

    Molecular Foundry, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

  • Christian F. Kisielowski

    Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

  • Marvin L Cohen

    Department of Physics, University of California at Berkeley, Physics, UC Berkeley, University of California, Berkeley

  • Alex Zettl

    Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and UC Berkeley, University of California, Berkeley