Ambient-Controlled Automated Growth, Wafer Transfer And Optical Characterization Of 2D Materials

What Has Been Achieved:

A custom designed multi-module system for synthesis and optical characterization of 2D layered chalcogenides is available in the 2DCC Thin Films facility (MOCVD2).  The system includes a cold wall metalorganic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) reactor for deposition of wafer-scale transition metal dichalcogenide monolayers and heterostructures that is connected through a robot transfer stage to a glovebox that houses a confocal Raman/photoluminescence imaging system.  The MOCVD growth process is fully automated using recipe driven software including automatic transfer of wafers from the deposition chamber to the glovebox enabling post-growth characterization without exposing the samples to air. The MOCVD reactor is also designed to enable real time measurements of surface coverage and growth rate using in situ spectroscopic ellipsometry. Recipe and characterization data for samples are automatically generated and available through the user interface in LiST (the 2DCC facility-wide data management tool and database) after each experiment.  

Importance of the Achievement:

The multi-module system enables growth, optical characterization and data capture of 2D layers within minimal human assistance.  While the data flow is currently one-way from process/characterization equipment to LiST, the ultimate goal is to make this two-way whereby predictions from machine learning/AI enabled by LiST 2.0 are used to set process parameters for subsequent growth experiments which is automatically transferred in recipe form to the growth computer for semi-autonomous operation.

Unique Feature(s) of the MIP that Enabled this Achievement: 

User facility enabling unique tool development coupled with MIP focus on data management/science.