Phys.org September 1, 2021
MXenes are two-dimensional sheets of transition metal carbides or nitrides in the form of few-atom-thick single layers. An international team of researchers (Germany, Switzerland) has found a new way to enhance the properties of MXenes by shining fast light pulses on them. Using ultrafast electron microscopy with atomic spatial resolution they showed that the laser energy transfers to the atomic lattice in a record-breaking time of merely 230 femtoseconds. They also found that femtosecond laser light can be used to switch back and forth between the originally flat surface structure of the MXene and a nano-wave form of the material—a hill-and-valley “nano-landscape” with a periodicity that is more than fifty times finer than the laser wavelength. It is possible to control the nano-wave’s orientation with the polarization of the laser, which means the material has an optical memory on the nanoscale. The researchers expect the nano-waved MXenes to show improved energy storage capacity and enhanced catalytic or antibiotic activity. The possibility to switch the structure of MXenes between plane and wavy ‘on demand’ via a laser pulse opens intriguing ways to use the materials in active plasmonic, chemical and electric devices…read more. TECHNICAL ARTICLE
Abstract. Credit: ACS Nano 2021, XXXX, XXX, XXX-XXX, August 31, 2021Â