Rewritable ghost floating gates by tunnelling triboelectrification for two-dimensional electronics

Gates can electrostatically control charges inside two-dimensional materials. However, integrating independent gates typically requires depositing and patterning suitable insulators and conductors. Moreover, after manufacturing, gates are unchangeable. Here we introduce tunnelling triboelectrification for localizing electric charges in very close proximity of two-dimensional materials. As representative materials, we use chemical vapour deposition graphene deposited on a SiO 2 /Si substrate. The triboelectric charges, generated by friction with a Pt-coated atomic force microscope tip and injected through defects, are trapped at the air–SiO 2 interface underneath graphene and act as ghost floating gates. Tunnelling triboelectrification uniquely permits to create, modify and destroy p and n regions at will with the spatial resolution of atomic force microscopes. As a proof of concept, we draw rewritable p/n + and p/p + junctions with resolutions as small as 200 nm. Our results open the way to time-variant two-dimensional electronics where conductors, p and n regions can be defined on demand. Once fabricated, the gates of conventional electronic devices are spatially fixed. Here, the authors introduce tunnelling triboelectrification to create, modify and destroy on-demand ghost floating gates underneath 2D materials, with the spatial resolution of an atomic force microscope.