van der Waals heteroepitaxy on muscovite

Abstract

As current electronics makes a transition from bulky and rigid templates to lightweight and flexible ones, the emerging field of soft technology is set to revolutionize our daily life. Currently, polymer based templates dominate this field due to their excellent mechanical characteristics and low cost, but limited thermal budget and stabilities are the major technological bottlenecks resulting in poor performance and short duration of lifetime. Recently, the technology based on van der Waals heteroepitaxy on muscovite is considered as a promising solution to overcome these barriers at once. In this paper, the characteristics of muscovite and the mechanism of van der Waals heteroepitaxy will be introduced, after that, a variety of materials on muscovite via van der Waals heteroepitaxy and the efforts on practical applications are reported. With the outlook of material science and help of advanced measurements, the evidence of heteroepitaxy of muscovite and overlayers has been deeply analyzed. Moreover, various measurements of properties was carried under bending conditions to demonstrate the mechanical stability and reliability. Through this review, we pave the path to develop more material systems on muscovite to make MICAtronics completely.