Crystalline insulators for scalable 2D nanoelectronics

Abstract Despite the breathtaking progress already achieved for electronic devices built from 2D materials, they are still far from exploiting their full theoretical performance potential. Many of these problems are due to the lack of suitable insulators which would go along with 2D materials as nicely as SiO2 goes with Si. For instance, amorphous oxides known from Si technologies contain numerous defects which degrade the device performance and stability, and hBN is not suitable for nanoscale devices due to limited dielectric properties. Thus, we suggest that an intensive search of beyond-hBN layered 2D insulators and other crystalline insulators such as CaF2, other fluorides and native oxides is required for the further development of next-generation 2D nanoelectronics.