Black phosphorus (bP) is the second known elemental allotrope with a layered crystal structure that can be mechanically exfoliated to atomic layer thickness. Unlike metallic graphite and semi-metallic graphene, bP is a semiconductor in both bulk and few-layer form. Here we fabricate bP-naked quantum wells in a back-gated field effect transistor geometry with bP thicknesses ranging from 6±1 nm to 47±1 nm. Using a polymer encapsulant, we suppress bP oxidation and observe field effect mobilities up to 900 cm2 V−1 s−1 and on/off current ratios exceeding 105. Shubnikov-de Haas oscillations observed in magnetic fields up to 35 T reveal a 2D hole gas with Schrödinger fermion character in a surface accumulation layer. Our work demonstrates that 2D electronic structure and 2D atomic structure are independent. 2D carrier confinement can be achieved without approaching atomic layer thickness, advantageous for materials that become increasingly reactive in the few-layer limit such as bP.

The electronic thermal conductivity of graphene and 2D Dirac materials is of fundamental interest and can play an important role in the performance of nano-scale devices. We report the electronic thermal conductivity, K e , in suspended graphene in the nearly intrinsic regime over a temperature range of 20 to 300 K. We present a method to extract K e using two-point DC electron transport at low bias voltages, where the electron and lattice temperatures are decoupled. We find K e ranging from 0.5 to 11 W/m.K over the studied temperature range. The data are consistent with a model in which heat is carried by quasiparticles with the same mean free-path and velocity as graphene's charge carriers.

We study 23-30 nm long suspended single-wall carbon nanotube quantum dots and observe both their stretching and bending vibrational modes. We use low-temperature DC electron transport to excite and measure the tubes' bending mode by making use of a positive feedback mechanism between their vibrations and the tunneling electrons. In these nanoelectromechanical systems (NEMS), we measure fundamental bending frequencies f(bend) ≈ 75-280 GHz and extract quality factors Q ∼ 10(6). The NEMS's frequencies can be tuned by a factor of 2 with tension induced by mechanical breakjunctions actuated by an electrostatic force or tension from bent suspended electrodes.

Stannous selenide is a layered semiconductor that is a polar analogue of black phosphorus, and of great interest as a thermoelectric material. Unusually, hole doped SnSe supports a large Seebeck coefficient at high conductivity, which has not been explained to date. Angle resolved photo-emission spectroscopy, optical reflection spectroscopy and magnetotransport measurements reveal a multiplevalley valence band structure and a quasi two-dimensional dispersion, realizing a Hicks-Dresselhaus thermoelectric contributing to the high Seebeck coefficient at high carrier density. We further demonstrate that the hole accumulation layer in exfoliated SnSe transistors exhibits a field effect mobility of up to 250 cm 2 /Vs at T = 1.3 K. SnSe is thus found to be a high quality, quasi twodimensional semiconductor ideal for thermoelectric applications. arXiv:1802.08069v1 [cond-mat.mtrl-sci]

We describe a method to fabricate clean suspended single-wall carbon nanotube (SWCNT) transistors hosting a single quantum dot ranging in length from a few 10s of nm down to $\approx$ 3 nm. We first align narrow gold bow-tie junctions on top of individual SWCNTs and suspend the devices. We then use a feedback-controlled electromigration to break the gold junctions and expose nm-sized sections of SWCNTs. We measure electron transport in these devices at low temperature and show that they form clean and tunable single-electron transistors. These ultra-short suspended transistors offer the prospect of studying THz oscillators with strong electron-vibron coupling