Research

Conventional materials cannot achieve the high performance required to develop next-generation semiconductor electronics, including computers, cell phones, embedded systems, and internet-of-things devices. Graphene nanoribbons (1D strips of graphite) and diamane (2D sheets of diamond) are expected to meet these demands thanks to their exceptional properties, including:

• Extreme thickness of only a single atom, inducing quantum phenomena that enable novel device functionalities.
• Efficient transport of electricity and heat, resulting in faster electronics that consume less power.
• Excellent strength, hardness, flexibility, radiation tolerance, and chemical stability, providing durability for diverse applications.
• Defects that are state-of-the-art spin qubits and single-photon emitters for quantum computing, communication, and sensing.

Unfortunately, major challenges in the production and device integration of graphene nanoribbons and diamane have severely limited technological development of these superlative materials. The Jacobberger Group is overcoming these challenges to enable commercial carbon-based semiconductor electronics, optoelectronics, and sensors with unparalleled performance and entirely new functionality.

Beyond graphene and diamane described above, there are hundreds of atomically thin materials that exhibit a wide range of promising electronic, optical, and magnetic properties. Combining two or more of these materials by stacking them on each other or stitching them together yields more complex heterostructures. In heterostructures with specific architectures—with precise domain composition, size, shape, position, and orientation—new condensed matter physics emerges, which can be harnessed to realize cutting-edge devices. However, the lack of methods to rationally stack and stitch materials into specific architectures over large areas has inhibited the development of heterostructure technologies. The Jacobberger group is solving this problem by developing scalable approaches to fabricate heterostructures with atomic-scale precision. Since the atomically thin materials, including graphene, diamane, boron nitride, and transition metal dichalcogenides, produced in our group can be combined in infinite ways, these heterostructures provide endless possibilities to engineer high-performance devices and circuits that exploit novel electronic, optoelectronic, excitonic, spintronic, topological, valleytronic, twistronic, and quantum phenomena.

Quantum technologies promise to enable unprecedented and exciting applications, such as solving certain computational problems millions of times faster than modern day processors, securely communicating information in a way that cannot be hacked, and sensing chemical species and physical stimuli with ultra-high sensitivity and spatial resolution. Spin qubits and single-photon emitters are two of the fundamental building blocks for developing quantum computing, communication, and sensing hardware. In order to realize the full potential of quantum technologies, millions of atomically identical spin qubits and single photon emitters with well-defined properties must be manufactured into rationally designed patterns. However, creating materials with such atomic precision over large areas is an enormous challenge. The Jacobberger Group is overcoming this challenge by exploiting molecules as atomically identical spin qubits and single-photon emitters, with well-defined magnetic, optical, and electronic properties. We also discover new processes to deterministically organize the molecules into large-area patterns, opening the door to long-awaited scalable quantum technologies.