2D Material Devices via a Cleanroom in a Glovebox

Exploring new technologies and quantum phases requires rapidly and cleanly creating heterostructures and devices. Typically, this relies on complex machinery in a cleanroom, which does not prevent oxidation or other contaminants and raises the cost and time to discovery. Here, I will outline our development of the “Cleanroom in a Glovebox,” inspired by the ease of 2D atomic crystal devices and heterostructure fabrication [Rev. Sci. Instrum. 91, 073909 (2020)]. The system allows heterostructure creation, device fabrication, and in-situ electrical, optical, and topographic characterization while interfacing with thin-film growth and surface-sensitive probes. This tool enabled the discovery of 2D Modulation Doping [Nano Letters 20, 8446 (2020)], An Axial Higgs Mode [Nature 606, 896 (2022)], and non-local transport along a topological edge mode of a chiral superconductor. It allowed rapid fabrication and characterization of 2D MoN[Chem. of Mat. 34, 351 (2021)], battery materials [Angew. Chem. 62, e202302363 (2023)] and graphene-based biosensors [ACS Nano 16, 3704 (2022)].