Local thermal and thermoelectric transport in 2D transition metal dichalcogenide based nanostructures and devices

Energy transport phenomena such as thermoelectricity and heat flow are fundamental issues of basic research as well as a key scientific problem of many technological applications.

The need for the development of high efficient two-dimensional (2D) materials arises from new challenges brought by the quest of continuous improvement and miniaturisation of micro- and nano-devices.

Therefore, high quality functional 2D based structures are highly attractive for numerous applications in nanotechnology and energy harvesting.

THERMIC is an ambitious project which aims to investigate nanoscale energy dissipation and transport in novel 2D transition metal dichalcogenide (TMD) material nanostructures, i.e., van der Waals heterostructures, and sub-micrometre lateral graphene-TMD heterojunctions.

The project is built on two main pillars: (a) the development of novel TMD based nanostructures and devices using epitaxial growth techniques and lithographic patterning methods and (b) the investigation of local thermal and thermoelectric transport in the fabricated 2D nanostructures by means of scanning probe microscopy.Understanding of local energy transport phenomena in the proposed nanostructures will be crucial for the design of next-generation optoelectronic and thermal devices based on TMD materials.

The cutting-edge research proposed here can offer innovative solutions to open issues in different research areas ranging from nanoelectronics, optoelectronic devices, thermal barriers, telecommunication and signal processing, and further boost the integration of TMD materials in the main semiconductor industry.