INSP - Sorbonne Université - 4 place Jussieu - 75005 Paris - Barre 22-12, 4^e étage, salle 426

Jean-Francois Dayen - IPCMS Strasbourg

Abstract

The rise of graphene, followed by the more recent (re)discovery of the vast family of transition metal dichalcogenides, has fueled an unprecedented inter-disciplinary research effort, at the interface between physics, chemistry and engineering. Because of their atomically-thin structure, high surface to volume ratio, and reduced electric screening, new properties and functionalities are expected to emerge when exploiting the interactions of two-dimensional (2D) materials placed in contact with other nanomaterials, including (0D) nanoparticles, molecules, and nanowires. These so-called Mixed-dimensional van der Waals Heterostructures (“MWH”) are now at the forefront of basic nanoscience and applied nanotechnology, providing new sets of possibilities to tailor device functions and novel physical properties. We report a simple and scalable fabrication route of new 2D material/0D clusters heterostructures, exploiting the self-organized growth over graphene of epitaxial flat aluminium based nanoclusters assemblies. Our devices based on Graphene-aluminum clusters peculiar structure show robust and reproducible features of single-electron transport combined with magnetic functionalities. We first provide experimental evidence that 2D materials are unique promising alternative to skirt the challenging issue of contacting the nanoparticles one by one with external leads in the sake of developing single electron transport devices. Finally, the spintronics properties of 2D–0D heterostructures are unveiled4. An anisotropic magneto‐Coulomb effect, mediated by spin–orbit coupling within a single ferromagnetic electrode, provides tunable spin‐valve‐like magnetoresistance signatures and controllable magnetic modulation of the device’s single‐electron charge states, without need of spin coherent tunnelling transport. These heterostructures pave the way towards scalable nanospintronics device architectures at the crossroads of 2D material physics and spin electronics.