Inorganic Two-Dimensional Materials under Electron Irradiation: Stability, Evolution of the Atomic Structure, and Beam-Mediated Doping

Isolation of a single sheet of graphene indicated that strictly two-dimensional (2D) materials can exist at finite temperatures. Indeed, inorganic 2D systems such as hexagonal BN sheets, transition metal dichalcogenides (TMD) with a common structural formula MeX2, where Me stands for transition metals (Mo, W, Ti, etc.), X for chalcogens (S, Se, Te), and SiO2 layers were later manufactured by various methods. All these materials have defects, which naturally affect their properties. Moreover, defects can appear during exposure to energetic electrons during sample examination in the transmission electron microscope (TEM) or deliberately be introduced by ion and electron irradiation to tailor the properties of the system [1].