Damage-free LED lithography for atomically thin 2D material devices

• Published in: Scientific reports Vol. 13; no. 1; p. 2583
• Main Authors: Shi, Yue, Taniguchi, Takaaki, Byun, Ki-Nam, Kurimoto, Daiki, Yamamoto, Eisuke, Kobayashi, Makoto, Tsukagoshi, Kazuhito, Osada, Minoru
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 14.02.2023; Nature Publishing Group; Nature Portfolio
• Subjects: 639/301/930; 639/301/930/543; 639/925/927; 639/925/927/1007; Electrodes; Electronic equipment; Fabrication; Humanities and Social Sciences; Light emitting diodes; Lithography; Molybdenum disulfide; multidisciplinary; Photolithography; Science; Science (multidisciplinary)
• ISSN: 2045-2322; 2045-2322
• DOI: 10.1038/s41598-023-29281-w

Desired electrode patterning on two-dimensional (2D) materials is a foremost step for realizing the full potentials of 2D materials in electronic devices. Here, we introduce an approach for damage-free, on-demand manufacturing of 2D material devices using light-emitting diode (LED) lithography. The advantage of this method lies in mild photolithography by simply combining an ordinary optical microscope with a commercially available LED projector; the low-energy red component is utilized for optical characterization and alignment of devices, whereas the high-energy blue component is utilized for photoresist exposure and development of personal computer designed electrode patterns. This method offers maskless, damage-free photolithography, which is particularly suitable for 2D materials that are sensitive to conventional lithography. We applied this LED lithography to device fabrication of selected nanosheets (MoS 2 , graphene oxides and RuO 2 ), and achieved damage-free lithography of various patterned electrodes with feature sizes as small as 1–2 μm. The LED lithography offers a useful approach for cost-effective mild lithography without any costly instruments, high vacuum, or complex operation.