Emerging Artificial Two-Dimensional van der Waals Heterostructures for Optoelectronics

Two-dimensional (2D) materials are attracting explosive attention for their intriguing potential in versatile applications, covering optoelectronics, electronics, sensors, etc. An attractive merit of 2D materials is their viable van der Waals (VdW) stacking in artificial sequence, thus forming different atomic arrangements in vertical direction and enabling unprecedented tailoring of material properties and device application. In this chapter, we summarize the latest progress in assembling VdW heterostructures for optoelectronic applications by beginning with the basic pick-transfer method for assembling 2D materials and then discussing the different combination of 2D materials of semiconductor, conductor, and insulator properties for various optoelectronic devices, e.g., photodiode, phototransistors, optical memories, etc.

Information: Displays and Memory Devices (1981–2007)

Adapting the thin-film technology developed in its solar energy program, ECD became a pioneer in making flat panel displays. Its subsidiary Ovonic Imaging Systems enjoyed some success in this area, but in time the display industry was taken over by the giant Japanese and Korean electronics companies. Commercializing Ovshinsky’s invention of phase-change memory also went slowly. The company first developed chalcogenide alloys for faster optical memories, used in rewritable CDs and DVDs. At Ovshinsky’s urging, the same alloy was used in an electrical phase-change memory, which advanced to the point where a new company, Ovonyx, was begun to develop its promise for use in computers. One other promising information technology, a “cognitive computer” whose architecture modeled that of the human brain, never reached fruition because the program was terminated by ECD at the time Ovshinsky was pushed out.