An Edgy Journey with Transition Metal Dichalcogenides: From Flakes to Nanopillars

The family of transitionmetal dichalcogenides offer a unique platformfor electronic and optical tunability due to the sensitivity to their dimensional configuration, edge terminations, and varying crystal phases. In this thesis we focus on structures based on the transition metal dichalcogenides MoS2 and WS2. We study how different crystal...

Charting the low-loss region in electron energy loss spectroscopy with machine learning

Exploiting the information provided by electron energy-loss spectroscopy (EELS) requires reliable access to the low-loss region where the zero-loss peak (ZLP) often overwhelms the contributions associated to inelastic scatterings off the specimen. Here we deploy machine learning techniques developed in particle physics to realise a model...

Illuminating the Electronic Properties of WS₂ Polytypism with Electron Microscopy

Tailoring the specific stacking sequence (polytypes) of layered materials represents a powerful strategy to identify and design novel physical properties. While nanostructures built upon transition-metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) with either the 2H or 3R crystalline phases have been routinely studied, knowledge of TMD nanomaterials based on...

Strain-Dependent Edge Structures in MoS₂ Layers

Edge structures are low-dimensional defects unavoidable in layered materials of the transition metal dichalcogenides (TMD) family. Among the various types of such structures, the armchair (AC) and zigzag (ZZ) edge types are the most common. It has been predicted that the presence of intrinsic strain localized along these edges structures can...