Abstract The controlled creation and manipulation of defects in 2D materials has become increasingly popular as a means to design and tune new material functionalities. However, defect characterization by direct atomic-scale imaging is often severely limited by surface contamination due to a blanket of hydrocarbons. Thus, analysis techniques that can characterize atomic-scale defects despite the contamination layer are advantageous. In this work, we take inspiration from X-ray absorption spectroscopy and use broad-beam electron energy loss spectroscopy (EELS) to characterize defect structures in 2D hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) based on averaged fine structure in the boron K-edge. Since EELS is performed in a transmission electron microscope (TEM), imaging can be performed in-situ to assess contamination levels and other factors such as tears in the fragile 2D sheets, which can affect the spectroscopic analysis. We demonstrate the TEM-EELS technique for 2D hBN samples irradiated with different ion types and doses, finding spectral signatures indicative of boron–oxygen bonding that can be used as a measure of sample defectiveness depending on the ion beam treatment. We propose that even in cases where surface contamination has been mitigated, the averaging-based TEM-EELS technique can be useful for efficient sample surveys to support atomically resolved EELS experiments.
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Homogenization of plasmonic crystals: seeking the epsilon-near-zero effect
By using an asymptotic analysis and numerical simulations, we derive and investigate a system of homogenized Maxwell's equations for conducting material sheets that are periodically arranged and embedded in a heterogeneous and anisotropic dielectric host. This structure is motivated by the need to design plasmonic crystals that enable the propagation of electromagnetic waves with no phase delay (epsilon-near-zero effect). Our microscopic model incorporates the surface conductivity of the two-dimensional (2D) material of each sheet and a corresponding line charge density through a line conductivity along possible edges of the sheets. Our analysis generalizes averaging principles inherent in previous Bloch-wave approaches. We investigate physical implications of our findings. In particular, we emphasize the role of the vector-valued corrector field, which expresses microscopic modes of surface waves on the 2D material. We demonstrate how our homogenization procedure may set the foundation for computational investigations of: effective optical responses of reasonably general geometries, and complicated design problems in the plasmonics of 2D materials.
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- Award ID(s):
- 1912847
- PAR ID:
- 10282115
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Proceedings of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences
- Volume:
- 475
- Issue:
- 2230
- ISSN:
- 1364-5021
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 20190220
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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