UC Berkeley

The ability to control and predict the behavior of electrons in materials is highly sought after for the innovation of new technologies. Emergent localized electronic states and correlated phenomena in designer nanomaterials could provide an intriguing platform for the development of novel qubit architectures. Recent advancements have marked a new era in the engineering and design of such phases in nanomaterials through a variety of synthesis and fabrication techniques. Characterization methods such as scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) enable the precise structural visualization and local probing of electronic states. Using chemistry-based design concepts and materials fabrication and processing methods, this interdisciplinary research aims to isolate previously inaccessible structures and confirm their predicted electronic structure and behavior. Herein I will present several strategies for the fabrication and isolation of novel nanomaterials and heterostructures and discuss the STM characterization of the resulting materials. Chapter 1 will detail the atomically precise synthesis of carbon nanomaterials from carefully designed chemical precursors. The vast repertoire of synthetic methods enables the design of materials with intriguing properties such as magnetic ground states or topological electronic states. Chapter 2 will focus on deposition and transfer techniques which allow the isolation of solution-synthesized polymeric precursors for carbon nanomaterials, as well as top-down synthesized nanomaterials such as phosphorene nanoribbons (PNRs). Finally, in Chapter 3 I will discuss a new strategy for the fabrication of Van der Waals heterostructures that could imbue new properties in 2D materials using molecular thin films to induce periodic strain or local magnetic moments. The realization of these relatively unexplored systems could break new ground in material design and technology development and further deepen our understanding of electrons in solids.