Developing Analytical Algorithms for the Rapid Identification of Atomically Thin Materials

Abstract

Van der Waals (VdW) heterostructures are molecular constructs assembled by the stacking of atomically thin layered substances known as 2D materials and bear applications in fields including electronics and energy storage. For heterostructure creation, monolayer or few-layer crystals are typically desired due to their superior tunability in comparison to thicker layers of the same material. In this work, a MATLAB image processing script was developed to compute optical contrast, as based on a calculation involving the intensity of light reflected by the sample (2D material) and background for specific color channels (red, green, or blue), to aid in the identification of a variety of 2D materials. A graph representing the computed optical contrast values within the microscope’s field of view was displayed. The optical contrast values in appropriate color channels were correlated with the thicknesses of the 2D flake. The software developed in this work can be utilized to expedite the accurate identification of 2D materials for the future assembly of VdW heterostructures for varied applications.