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2D materials are appealing for emergent phenomena and applications, but despite the realization of many 2D layered crystals, 2D metals remain hard to realize because of their non-layered nature. In the past year, a van der Waals squeezing method has been developed for the production of diverse 2D metals at ångström-scale thickness, revealing exceptional quantum transport.

The integration of high-κ dielectrics with low equivalent oxide thickness (EOT) is crucial for the development of 2D transistors. Here, the authors report the low-temperature fabrication of wafer-scale HfO₂ dielectric films with sub-5-Å EOT and their application for the realization of high-performance 2D MoS₂ transistors and circuits.

Melting and squeezing pure metals between two sapphires covered in molybdenum disulfide produces diverse two-dimensional metals at the ångström thickness limit.

While water-splitting electrocatalysts enable energy storage in carbon-neutral fuels, a recent challenge has been the discovery and understanding of catalyst active sites. Here, authors find domain boundaries in MoS₂ materials to present high-activity, stable, and scalable sites for H₂ evolution.

Twisting vertically stacked individual layers of two-dimensional materials can trigger exciting fundamental physics and advanced electronic device applications. Here, the authors report five times enhancement in vertical heterojunction conductivity on rotating MoS₂ over graphene.

Wafer-scale monolayers of MoS₂ can be used to create flexible transistors and circuits that exhibit on/off ratios of 10¹⁰, current densities of ~35 μA μm⁻¹ and mobilities of ~55 cm² V⁻¹ s⁻¹.

Interlayer twist angle between vertically stacked 2D material layers can trigger exciting fundamental physics. Here, the authors report precise control of interlayer twist angle of stacked centimeter scale multilayer MoS₂ homostructures that enables continuous change in their indirect bandgap, Moiré phonons and electrical properties.

A bonding and debonding strategy is used to stack epitaxially grown semiconductor monolayers into various structures with precise control of the layer number and interlayer twist angle.

One-dimensional van der Waals (1D vdW) materials derive interesting behaviour from dimensional confinement. Here the authors study a 1D vdW semiconductor, fibrous red phosphorous, and observe exceptional optical properties of large optical anisotropy and high photoluminescence.

Functional devices based on sliding ferroelectrics remain elusive. This work demonstrates the rewritable, non-volatile memory devices at room-temperature with two-dimensional sliding ferroelectric rhombohedral-stacked bilayer MoS₂. The device shows overall good performance and can be made flexible.

Flexible integrated circuits (ICs) based on 2D semiconductors hold promise for various applications, but their scale has so far remained limited to a low number of devices. Here, the authors report the fabrication of medium-scale flexible ICs integrating both combinational and sequential elements based on 2D MoS₂ transistors.

The authors report experimental evidence of phonon Stark effect in 2H-MoS₂ bilayers. A Stark phonon appears as the interlayer excitons are tuned to resonate with the LA phonon emission line, and shows a linear energy shift upon application of an out-of-plane electric field.

2D MoS₂ is being intensively investigated as a promising candidate to extend the downscaling of electronic devices. Here, the authors report a buffer-layer-control method for the growth of wafer-scale single-crystalline MoS₂ monolayers on industry-compatible sapphire substrates with competitive optical and electronic properties.

Via Raman and infrared spectroscopy measurements, X. Zan et al. find that rhombohedral ABC trilayer graphene has stronger electron/infrared-phonon coupling than Bernal ABA trilayer graphene.

Van der Waals heterostructures may offer a suitable platform for all-optical manipulation of valleytronic devices. Here, the authors observe a strong enhancement of the valley magnetic response in MoS₂, and magnetic tuning of the polarization of MoS₂ direct optical transition

This Review introduces emerging nonlinear electronic, optical and optoelectronic properties of moiré superlattices and discusses opportunities and challenges in this rapidly progressing field, as well as implications for fundamental physics and technological innovations.

The authors report the generation of circular photocurrents from multilayer 2H-phase transition metal dichalcogenides, including MoTe₂, MoS₂, and WSe₂, which is attributed to the manifestation of hidden spin polarization and inverse spin Hall effect.

Hydrogen bonds impact the chemical, physical and biological properties of molecular materials, but are rarely able to induce significant changes in electrical properties. Now a dynamic-to-static transition of hydrogen bonds in an organic–inorganic superlattice has been shown to yield a metal–insulator transition with an on–off ratio of 10⁷ in electrical resistivity.

In 2023, a number of experiments on trilayer 2D structures uncovered new exciton states that have an electrically-tunable dipole moment and show a quantum many-body phase diagram.

A yttrium-doped metallic two-dimensional buffer layer can be used to improve charge carrier transport between the metal contacts and semiconductor channel in molybdenum-disulfide-based transistors.

MoS₂/graphite and MoS₂/h-BN interfaces are shown to have ultra-low friction coefficients, whereas edges and interface steps mainly contribute to the friction force.

The application of 2D MoS₂ flexible integrated circuits (ICs) is currently limited by the material quality over large areas and the device fabrication technology. Here the authors report a gate-first fabrication technique to realize wafer-scale monolayer MoS₂ ICs on rigid and flexible substrates with high performance and low power consumption.

Symmetry breaking plays a significant role in the determination of the fascinating physical phenomena and quantum phase transitions in 2D materials. This Review discusses the state-of-the-art physical and chemical approaches to engineer the symmetry breaking of 2D materials and their heterostructures.