Atomically thin semiconductors are one of the fastest growing research fields in materials science due to their emerging applications in high-performance electronics and optics. Furthermore, confinement of the semiconductor within two dimensions leads to unique phenomena and allows tuning the materials properties. The synthesis of large area two dimensional (2D) materials remains as a significant technological challenge. Here we report a method that allows harvesting centimetre sized monolayer semiconducting stannous oxide (SnO) from the interfacial oxide layer of liquid tin. The method takes advantage of van der Waals forces occurring between the interfacial oxide layer and a solid substrate that is brought into contact with the molten metal. Due to the liquid state of the metallic precursor, the surface oxide sheet can be delaminated with ease and on a large scale. The SnO monolayer is determined to feature p-type semiconducting behaviour with a bandgap of ~4.2 eV. Field effect transistors based on monolayer SnO are demonstrated. The synthetic technique is facile, scalable and holds promise for creating atomically thin semiconductors at wafer scale. Furthermore the technique is simple, does not require expensive equipment and holds promise to be applicable to a host of other materials that can be derived from low temperature molten metals.<br/>

Wafer scale synthesis of semiconducting SnO monolayers from interfacial oxide layers of metallic liquid tin

255th National Meeting (2018)

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