Metal–semiconductor transition in atomically thin Bi{sub 2}Sr{sub 2}Co{sub 2}O{sub 8} nanosheets

Journal Article · Mon Sep 01 04:00:00 EDT 2014 · APL Materials

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4892975· OSTI ID:22303561

Wang, Yang; Cheng, Rui; Dong, Jianjin; Liu, Yuan ^[1]; Zhou, Hailong; Yu, Woo Jong ^[2]; Terasaki, Ichiro ^[3]; Huang, Yu ^[1]; Duan, Xiangfeng ^[2]

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1. Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of California, Los Angeles, California 90095 (United States)
2. Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of California, Los Angeles, California 90095 (United States)
3. Department of Physics, Nagoya University, Nagoya 464-8602 (Japan)

Two-dimensional layered materials have attracted considerable attention since the discovery of graphene. Here we demonstrate that the layered Bi{sub 2}Sr{sub 2}Co{sub 2}O{sub 8} (BSCO) can be mechanically exfoliated into single- or few-layer nanosheets. The BSCO nanosheets with four or more layers display bulk metallic characteristics, while the nanosheets with three or fewer layers have a layer-number-dependent semiconducting characteristics. Charge transport in bilayer or trilayer BSCO nanosheets exhibits Mott 2D variable-range-hopping (VRH) conduction throughout 2 K–300 K, while the charge transport in monolayers follows the Mott-VRH law above a crossover temperature of 75 K, and is governed by Efros and Shklovskii-VRH laws below 75 K. Disorder potentials and Coulomb charging both contribute to the transport gap of these nanodevices. Our study reveals a distinct layer number-dependent metal-to-semiconductor transition in a new class of 2D materials, and is of great significance for both fundamental investigations and practical devices.

• OSTI ID: 22303561
• Journal Information: APL Materials, Journal Name: APL Materials Journal Issue: 9 Vol. 2; ISSN 2166-532X; ISSN AMPADS
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
GRAPHENE
LAYERS
METALS
NANOSTRUCTURES
SEMICONDUCTOR MATERIALS