Movable-Type Transfer and Stacking of van der Waals Heterostructures for Spintronics

The key to achieving high-quality and practical van der Waals heterostructure devices made from various two-dimensional (2D) materials lies in the efficient control over clean and flexible interfaces. Inspired by the “movable-type printing”, one of the four great inventions of ancient China, we demonstrate the “movable-type” transfer and stacking of 2D materials, which utilizes prefabricated polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) film to engineer the interfacial adhesion to 2D materials, and provides a flexible, efficient and batchable transfer scheme for 2D materials. The experiments also verify the “movable-type” transfer can preciously control the position and orientation of 2D materials, which meets the burgeoning requirements such as the preparation of twisted graphene and other heterostructures. Importantly, water-solubility of PVA film ensures an ideal interface of the materials without introducing contamination. We illustrate the superiority of this method with a WSe₂ vertical spin valve device, whose performance verifies the applicability and advantages of such a method for spintronics. Our PVA-assisted “movable-type” transfer process may promote the development of high-performance 2D-material-based devices.