Defect Engineering in Two-Dimensional Materials: Insight from Atomistic Simulations

Scientific figure: Schematic representation of chlorine doping of MoSe2 flakes by ion implantation.
Image: S. Prucnal et al. Nanoscale (2021).

Focused ion beams can be used to pattern 2D materials and ultimately to create arrays of nanoscale pores in atomically thin membranes for various technologies such as DNA sequencing, water purification and separation of chemical species. Among 2D materials, transition metal dichalcogenides, and specifically, MoS2, are of particular interest due to their spectacular physical properties, which make them intriguing candidates for various electronic, optical and energy conversion applications. Findings achieved by running large-scale molecular dynamics simulations to study the response of MoS2 monolayer to cluster ion irradiation suggest new opportunities for the creation of 2D nanoporous membranes with an atomically thin nature.

Read the complete user research report at the Gauss Centre for Supercomputing.

Principal Investigator: 

Mahdi Ghorbani-Asl

Institute of Ion Beam Physics and Materials Research Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf