Stacking atomic layers one by one: quest for new materials and physics

Modern electronics has been heavily relied on the technology to confine electrons in the interface layers of semiconductors. In recent years, scientists discovered that various atomically thin materials including graphene, a single atomic carbon layer, can be isolated. In these atomically thin materials, quantum physics allows electrons to move only in an effective 2-dimensional (2D) space. By stacking these 2D quantum materials, one can also create atomic-scale heterostructures with a wide variety of electronic and optical properties. I will discuss the creation of new heterostructures based on atomically thin materials and emerging new physics with technological implications therein.