Growth of 2D GaN Single Crystals on Liquid Metals

Two-dimensional (2D) gallium nitride (GaN) has been highly anticipated because its quantum confinement effect enables desirable deep-ultraviolet emission, excitonic effect and electronic transport properties. However, the currently obtained 2D GaN can only exist as intercalated layers of atomically thin quantum wells or nanometer-scale islands, limiting further exploration of its intrinsic characteristics. Here, we report, for the first time, the growth of micrometer-sized 2D GaN single crystals on liquid metals via a surface-confined nitridation reaction and demonstrate that the 2D GaN shows uniformly incremental lattice, unique phonon modes, blue-shifted photoluminescence emission and improved internal quantum efficiency, providing direct evidence to the previous theoretical predictions. The as-grown 2D GaN exhibits an electronic mobility of 160 cm2·V–1·s–1. These findings pave the way to potential optoelectronic applications of 2D GaN single crystals.