Biography: Manish Chhowalla is the Goldsmiths’ Professor of Materials Science at the University of Cambridge. His research interests are in the fundamental studies of atomically thin two-dimensional transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs). In particular, his group studies the optical and electronic properties of different phases of 2D TMDs. He has demonstrated that it is possible to induce phase transformations in atomically thin materials and utilize phases with disparate properties for field effect transistors, catalysis, and energy storage. Prof Chhowalla is a Fellow of the Materials Research Society, Institute of Physics, the Royal Society of Chemistry and Churchill College. He was the founding Editor in Chief of Applied Materials Today and is now the Associate Editor of ACS Nano. He has been on the Clarivate Highly Cited Researchers since 2016.

 Prior to Cambridge, Prof. Chhowalla was a Distinguished Professor at Rutgers University in New Jersey, USA. He was also the Director of the Institute of Advanced Materials, Devices & Nanotechnology at Rutgers. Before that, he was a doctoral student in the Electrical Engineering Department at the University of Cambridge and Churchill College. After his doctorate and Royal Academy of Engineering Postdoctoral Fellowship, Professor Chhowalla briefly worked in industry where he developed applications for “amorphous diamond”.

Interfaces two dimensional transition metal dichalcogenides, metals, and dielectrics

 Manish Chhowalla

Department of Materials Science and Metallurgy, University of Cambridge

In this talk, I will discuss the importance of making clean interfaces between metal contacts and 2D TMDs. I will describe how defects and the metal/semiconductor junction can pin the Fermi level and how ultra-clean van der Waals contacts can unpin the Fermi level. The vdW contacts allow the realization of both n- and p-type contacts with relatively low contact resistance. I will also discuss the importance of dielectric/semiconductor interface and how doping from the substrate can be suppressed by ensuring ultra-clean interface between the two.