The 21st century has witnessed a paradigm shift in materials science with the rise of low-dimensional materials—a class of substances whose physical properties are profoundly shaped by reduced dimensionality. Beginning with the groundbreaking isolation of monolayer graphene in 2004, low-dimensional systems have grown to encompass an extraordinary variety of 2D materials (such as transition metal dichalcogenides, hexagonal boron nitride, and MXenes), 1D nanostructures (nanowires, nanotubes), and 0D quantum dots. These systems not only defy classical bulk behaviors but also present unprecedented opportunities for innovation in areas ranging from quantum information and neuromorphic computing to energy harvesting, biosensing, and next-generation optoelectronics.
Hongwei Zhu (Tue,) studied this question.