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Orthogonal photopatterning of two-dimensional percolated network films for wafer-scale heterostructures

Nature Electronics volume 8, pages 235–243 (2025)Cite this article

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Abstract

Molecular intercalation-based electrochemical exfoliation of two-dimensional (2D) materials can be used to create van der Waals heterostructures. However, the scalable assembly of vertical heterostructures typically requires the use of various chemical solvents for photolithography and subsequent transfer, which can leave behind chemical residues and limit the patterning resolution. We show that patterned van der Waals heterostructures can be fabricated from electrochemically exfoliated 2D flakes using a photoreactive crosslinker. When a 2D van der Waals percolated network with the crosslinker is exposed to ultraviolet light, the network junctions form covalent bonds, thereby enabling improved charge transport and orthogonal patterning of vertically stacked van der Waals thin-film networks without affecting the underlying prepatterned layers. Our approach can be used to create wafer-scale arrays of photopatterned field-effect transistors based on different 2D materials. The field-effect transistors exhibit high spatial uniformity and can be used to create logic gates, namely NOT, NAND and NOR gates.

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Fig. 1: Photopatterned 2D vertical van der Waals heterostructures.
Fig. 2: Chemical and electrical analyses of 2D percolated networks.
Fig. 3: Electronic properties of FETs based on all 2D materials.
Fig. 4: Applicability to various logic circuits.

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Data availability

The data that supports the findings of this study are available from the corresponding authors upon reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by a National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) grant funded by the Korean Government (MSIT) (Grant Numbers RS-2023-00234581, RS-2023-00208538, RS-2023-00237308 and RS-2023-00276201). M.S.K. acknowledges support from the Nano & Material Technology Development Program (RS-2024-00445116) of the NRF funded by the Ministry of Science and ICT, Korea. V.M. was supported by project LUAUS23049 from the Ministry of Education Youth and Sports. Z.S. was supported by the ERC-CZ programme (Project LL2101) of the Ministry of Education Youth and Sports and used a large piece of infrastructure from Project Reg. Number CZ.02.1.01/0.0/0.0/15_003/0000444 financed by the EFRR.

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Author notes

  1. These authors contributed equally: In Cheol Kwak, Jihyun Kim.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Yonsei University, Seoul, Republic of Korea

    In Cheol Kwak, Jung Woo Moon, Seonkwon Kim & Jeong Ho Cho

  2. School of Advanced Materials Science and Engineering, Sungkyunkwan University (SKKU), Suwon, Republic of Korea

    Jihyun Kim, Ji Yun Park, Okin Song & Joohoon Kang

  3. Department of Inorganic Chemistry, University of Chemistry and Technology, Prague, Prague, Czech Republic

    Vlastimil Mazánek & Zdeněk Sofer

  4. Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Sogang University, Seoul, Republic of Korea

    Hyunwoo Jo, Se Young Park & Moon Sung Kang

  5. Institute of Emergent Materials, Sogang University, Seoul, Republic of Korea

    Moon Sung Kang

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  1. In Cheol Kwak
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Contributions

J.H.C. and J. Kang initiated and supervised all the research. I.C.K. and J. Kim conducted and designed most of the experimental work and data analysis. J.W.M., S.K., H.J. and S.Y.P. assisted with the data analysis. J.Y.P., O.S., V.M. and Z.S. synthesized the materials. M.S.K. assisted with paper writing. All authors contributed to the writing of the paper. All authors discussed the progress of the research and contributed to editing the paper.

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Correspondence to Joohoon Kang or Jeong Ho Cho.

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Nature Electronics thanks Yuerui Lu, Ning Wang and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

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Supplementary Tables 1 and 2 and Figs. 1–23.

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Kwak, I.C., Kim, J., Moon, J.W. et al. Orthogonal photopatterning of two-dimensional percolated network films for wafer-scale heterostructures. Nat Electron 8, 235–243 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41928-025-01351-z

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