Van der Waals nanomesh electronics on arbitrary surfaces

Chemical bonds, including covalent and ionic bonds, endow semiconductors with stable electronic configurations but also impose constraints on their synthesis and lattice-mismatched heteroepitaxy. Here, the unique multi-scale van der Waals (vdWs) interactions are explored in one-dimensional tellurium (Te) systems to overcome these restrictions, enabled by the vdWs bonds between Te atomic chains and the spontaneous misfit relaxation at quasi-vdWs interfaces. Wafer-scale Te vdWs nanomeshes composed of self-welding Te nanowires are laterally vapor grown on arbitrary surfaces at a low temperature of 100 °C, bringing greater integration freedoms for enhanced device functionality and broad applicability. The prepared Te vdWs nanomeshes can be patterned at the microscale and exhibit high field-effect hole mobility of 145 cm²/Vs, ultrafast photoresponse below 3 μs in paper-based infrared photodetectors, as well as controllable electronic structure in mixed-dimensional heterojunctions. All these device metrics of Te vdWs nanomesh electronics are promising to meet emerging technological demands. © 2023, The Author(s).