Correlative and Microscopy Investigation of Phase Transformation, Crystal Growth, and Degradation of Antimony Sulfide Thin Films.

Antimony sulfide (SbS), a compound of earth-abundant elements with a highly anisotropic, quasi-layered crystal structure, has triggered growing interest as a solar absorber in photovoltaics and as a phase-change material in memory devices. However, challenges remain in achieving high-quality thin films with controlled nucleation and growth for optimal performance. Here, we investigate the phase transformation, crystal structure and properties, as well as the growth and degradation of atomic layer-deposited SbS thin films using TEM and correlative analysis.

Moiré Lattice of Twisted Bilayer Graphene as Template for Non-Covalent Functionalization.

We present a novel approach to achieve spatial variations in the degree of non-covalent functionalization of twisted bilayer graphene (tBLG). The tBLG with twist angles varying between ~5° and 7° was non-covalently functionalized with 1,4,5,8,9,11-hexaazatriphenylenehexacarbonitrile (HATCN) molecules. Our results show a correlation between the degree of functionalization and the twist angle of tBLG.