Specially designed transistors allow researchers to ‘hear’ defects in a promising nanomaterial

Researchers from New York University, the U.S. Department of Energy’s Brookhaven National Laboratory, the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, and the National Institute for Materials Science in Tsukuba, Japan, have pioneered a new technique to identify and characterize atomic-scale defects in a two-dimensional (2D) material called hexagonal boron nitride. The team was able to detect the presence of individual carbon atoms replacing boron atoms in this material. "In this project, we essentially created a stethoscope for 2D materials," said Davood Shahrjerdi, one of the researchers involved in this study. "By analyzing the tiny and rhythmic fluctuations in electrical current, we can 'perceive' the behavior of single atomic defects."