About This Special Issue
Two-dimensional (2D) materials provide a playground that allows the creation of van der Waals heterostructures with various properties. One atom-thick monolayers, collectively covering a broad range of properties, now comprise a large family of these materials. The most outstanding material to be included is graphene, which is a zero-overlap semimetal. Other types of materials, such as metals (e.g., NbSe2), semiconductors (e.g., MoS2), and insulators [e.g., hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN)] have also been discovered. Unexpectedly, the mechanical/thermal/optical/electrical properties of these 2D materials are often very different from those of their 3D counterparts. Additionally, many thought-provoking questions have been raised in the studies of familiar phenomena, such as superconductivity or ferromagnetism, in the 2D case where no long-range order exists. Holding together by van der Waals forces, the combination of several 2D crystals in one vertical stack provides a plethora of opportunities which allow a far greater number of combinations than any traditional growth method. With the ever-increasing members of 2D structures, the properties of the heterostructures that could be created with atomic precision need to be further explored urgently.
Aims and Scope:Properties of transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDC)
Phase transitions in 2D materials
Semiconducting group-VIB dichalcogenides
Phosphorene and group-IV monochalcogenides
Novel van der Waals heterostructures
Growing van der Waals heterostructures
Van der Waals heterostructures for photovoltaic applications