van der Waals Nanoreactors - Part III: Mechanochemical Synthesis and Nanowriting of Atomically Thin Metals

Recent advances have enabled the formation of atomically thin two-dimensional (2D) metals templated on van der Waals (vdW) layered crystals. However, achieving controlled synthesis and nanoscale patterning of 2D metals without degradation remains challenging. Here, we report a new synthetic approach that enables precisely controlled growth of 2D metals fully encapsulated within vdW stacks. By applying localized mechanical forces, we demonstrate the principle by precisely nano-patterning palladium atoms on 2D MoTe2, yielding arbitrarily designed, high-resolution structures of crystalline Pd7MoTe2, a superconducting compound.