Talc is an insulating layered material that is stable
at ambient
conditions and has high-quality basal cleavage, which is a major advantage
for its use in van der Waals heterostructures. Here, we use near-field
synchrotron infrared nanospectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy, and first-principles
calculations to investigate the structural and vibrational properties
of talc crystals, ranging from monolayer to bulk, in the 300–750
and <60 cm–1 spectral windows. We observe a symmetry
crossover from mono to bilayer talc samples, attributed to the stacking
of adjacent layers. The in-plane lattice parameters and frequencies
of intralayer modes of talc display weak dependence on the number
of layers, consistent with a weak interlayer interaction. On the other
hand, the low-frequency (<60 cm–1) rigid-layer
(interlayer) modes of talc are suitable to identify the number of
layers in ultrathin talc samples, besides revealing strong in-plane
and out-of-plane anisotropy in the interlayer force constants and
related elastic stiffnesses of single crystals. The shear and breathing
force constants of talc are found to be 66 and 28%, respectively,
lower than those of graphite, making talc an excellent lubricant that
can be easily exfoliated. Our results broaden the understanding of
the structural and vibrational properties of talc at the nanoscale
regime and serve as a guide for future ultrathin heterostructures
applications.