While physicists and materials scientists have been trying to produce large-area, two-dimensional, high-quality silicon carbide (SiC) for some time with little to no success, a recent study at Bloch beamline made an unexpected breakthrough.
Researchers reported a potential technique to grow large-area monolayer honeycomb SiC with a bottom-up synthesis process. The material is predicted to have a large direct band gap (2.5 eV), ambient stability, and chemical versatility, offering the next level of material exploration for future applications.
We sat down with Craig Polley, Bloch beamline manager, to talk about this research surprise and what it means.
“Before this work, it was unclear if it was even possible,” Polley said.
