PDF Reprint of Publication
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Article www.acsnano.org Atomic Defects and Doping of Monolayer NbSe2 † ‡ § ∥ ∥ Lan Nguyen, Hannu-Pekka Komsa, Ekaterina Khestanova, Reza J. Kashtiban, Jonathan J. P. Peters, † ∥ ∥ § § Sean Lawlor, Ana M. Sanchez, Jeremy Sloan, Roman V. Gorbachev, Irina V. Grigorieva, ⊥ # ¶ † Arkady V. Krasheninnikov, , , and Sarah J. Haigh*, † § School of Materials and School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Manchester, Oxford Road, Manchester, M13 9PL, United Kingdom ‡ ¶ COMP Centre of Excellence, Department of Applied Physics, and Department of Applied Physics, Aalto University, P.O. Box 11100, FI-00076 Aalto, Finland ∥ Department of Physics, University of Warwick, Coventry, CV4 7AL, United Kingdom ⊥ Institute of Ion Beam Physics and Materials Research, Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf, 01328 Dresden, Germany # National University of Science and Technology MISiS, Leninskiy Prospekt, Moscow, 119049, Russian Federation *S Supporting Information ABSTRACT: We have investigated the structure of atomic defects within monolayer NbSe2 encapsulated in graphene by combining atomic resolution transmission electron microscope imaging, density functional theory (DFT) calculations, and strain mapping using geometric phase analysis. We demonstrate the presence of stable Nb and Se monovacancies in monolayer material and reveal that Se monovacancies are the most frequently observed defects, consistent with DFT calculations of their formation energy. We reveal that adventitious impurities of C, N, and O can substitute into the NbSe2 lattice stabilizing Se divacancies. We further observe evidence of Pt substitution into both Se and Nb vacancy sites. This knowledge of the character and relative frequency of different atomic defects provides the potential to better understand and control the unusual electronic and magnetic properties of this exciting two-dimensional material. KEYWORDS: air-sensitive 2D crystals, graphene encapsulation, monolayer NbSe2, transition metal dichalcogenides, atomic resolution TEM, defect dynamics, Pt doping wo-dimensional (2D) crystals such as graphene and the 2D crystals via substitutional doping is a promising research transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDCs) have area.5,10,12,13,16,17 fi T attracted considerable scienti c interest in recent years Niobium diselenide (NbSe2) is a 2D crystal that is gathering due to their unique properties and potential for revolutionary much attention; it demonstrates superconductivity at low − − technological applications.1 3 Aberration-corrected transmission temperatures (<10 K),21 25 charge density wave formation − electron microscopy (TEM) techniques have played a crucial from ∼33 K in bulk to ∼145 K in the monolayer,22,26 29 and role in unraveling the structure−property relationships of these excellent photoconductivity.30 Like the more commonly studied 4−9 materials at the atomic level. In particular, TEM can reveal the TMDCs, NbSe2 has a trigonal prismatic crystal structure with presence of local deviations from the pristine atomic structure, strong covalent bonding of Se−Nb−Se atoms within the plane such as intrinsic defects, dislocations, or dopant atoms, which can and weak van der Waals bonding between layers, allowing for − 21,24,25,31,32 33 directly affect the properties of the material.4 9 mechanical and liquid exfoliation of ultrathin sheets. Recent work has reported the tailoring of the electronic and However, understanding and optimizing the unique properties of functional properties of 2D crystals by deliberately introducing NbSe2 has been held back by the severe degradation of the − defects and/or doping the material with foreign atoms.5,8,10 17 This offers promising pathways for engineering 2D crystals for a Received: November 30, 2016 − broad range of applications in sensors and electronics.18 20 In Accepted: February 14, 2017 particular, the nanoscale engineering of magnetic properties of Published: February 14, 2017 © 2017 American Chemical Society 2894 DOI: 10.1021/acsnano.6b08036 ACS Nano 2017, 11, 2894−2904 ACS Nano Article Figure 1. Preparation of graphene-encapsulated NbSe2 for TEM imaging by mechanical exfoliation in an argon-environment glovebox. (a) fl Schematic of a graphene-encapsulated NbSe2 stack. (b) Optical image showing a NbSe2 ake encapsulated between graphene (Gr) sheets on an oxidized silicon wafer (scale bar: 20 μm). Thin regions were identified by the purple optical contrast. Edges of top and bottom encapsulating graphene sheets are highlighted by green and blue dashed lines. (c) Same Gr-NbSe2-Gr stack transferred to a quantifoil TEM grid. Blue dashed μ line highlights the thinnest NbSe2 region (scale bar: 20 m). (d) SAED pattern from the area of the red circle in (c). The large blue dashed ring fl d fl d highlights the position of graphene (1010)̅ re ections ( = 0.213 nm); small red circles highlight NbSe2 (1010)̅ re ections ( = 0.296 nm); while fl d fi small orange circles highlight NbSe2 (2110)̅ re ections ( = 0.173 nm). The line pro le highlights relative intensities of (1010)̅ and (2110)̅ diffraction spots used to determine the specimen thickness (scale bar: 5 nm−1). Figure 2. Experimental and simulated images for vacancy point defects in monolayer NbSe2. (a) DFT relaxed structural models (left), high- resolution TEM images (center), and multislice calculations (right) for pristine material (black border), a Se monovacancy (VSe, blue border), a fi Se divacancy (VSe2, red border), and a Nb vacancy (VNb, green border) (scale bar: 1 nm). (b) Intensity pro les extracted along the armchair direction as shown by arrows in (a) for experiment (upper panels) and simulation (lower panels) demonstrating the ability to distinguish pristine crystal from VSe,VSe2 (left) and VNb vacancies (right) using their individual intensity signatures. material, which occurs under ambient conditions when exfoliated A recent scanning tunneling microscopy study has shown that 21,31,34,35 to a few layers. defects in bulk NbSe2 play a crucial role in stabilizing nanoscale We have recently demonstrated superconductivity for an regions of CDW order at temperatures higher than the bulk 31 36 exfoliated monolayer material by studying NbSe2 crystals. This CDW transition temperature. These nanoscale regions of was achieved by preparing samples using mechanical exfoliation CDW ordering increase in size as the temperature is lowered, in a highly controlled inert glovebox environment, coupled with until the CDW phase persists throughout the crystal.36 Despite encapsulation using structurally stable 2D materials (graphene or the importance of these defects, to our knowledge no one has yet hexagonal BN) and tunneling contacts. The encapsulation studied defects in monolayer NbSe2 material. High resolution protects the NbSe2 from the environment, preserving super- transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) provides a conducting properties, whereas no transition to the super- complementary approach for atomic scale imaging and can be conducting phase was observed for monolayers prepared under combined with spectroscopic imaging techniques to gain ambient conditions. Curiously, a number of properties change information on local elemental distribution and electronic 37,38 ffi dramatically from bilayer NbSe2 to monolayer, such as a structure. However, to date, the di culty of preparing significant drop in the superconducting transition temperature31 representative samples has limited electron microscopy studies and the increase of temperature at which charge density waves of NbSe2 to relatively low-resolution imaging and electron (CDWs)26 are observed. The origin of this behavior remains diffraction.39,40 Here, using graphene encapsulation to preserve unknown, but a likely hypothesis is that it is related to atomic the structure we provide atomic resolution TEM imaging of scale defects, the nature of which could be elucidated by monolayer NbSe2. The presence of the graphene sheets structural studies. Only by understanding the degradation of such preserves the lattice structure of the material for more than 10 materials at the atomic level can their properties be fully realized months in ambient conditions, in stark contrast to unprotected and exploited. samples, which degrade after a few hours. However, when imaged 2895 DOI: 10.1021/acsnano.6b08036 ACS Nano 2017, 11, 2894−2904 ACS Nano Article fi at the atomic scale we nd the encapsulated NbSe2 contains Nb-rich limits), formation energies for VSe and VNb mono- significant populations of atomic defects that are not simply the vacancies were found to be 1.05 and 3.49 eV, respectively. These result of electron beam irradiation. We correlate our values are lower than those found for more common TMDCs, 49 experimental imaging results with extensive density functional e.g., in MoS2 under similar conditions, which is in agreement theory (DFT) investigations of defect formation energies. with the consensus in the literature that NbSe2 degrades more easily than these other TMDCs. As well as monovacancies we RESULTS AND DISCUSSION also observe a significant number of Se divacancies (the relative fl frequency of different defects is considered later). However, our To prepare specimens for TEM investigations, thin NbSe2 akes were exfoliated in an inert environment and encapsulated DFT calculations predict that VSe2 has a high formation energy of between two graphene sheets (Figure 1b) before being 3.53 eV. The presence of VSe2 defects in the NbSe2 sheet is transferred onto gold quantifoil grids.41 The thinnest regions therefore a puzzle; to reduce the total energy,