Title: Hybridization of Van Der Waals Materials and Close-Packed Nanoparticle Monolayers
Description: Van der Waals materials and inorganic nanoparticles are two categories of nanomaterials that have been widely investigated in the past two decades. Both of them have been considered to be promising as candidates for the next generation electrical, optical, and mechanical applications. However, both of them have a few limitations that greatly affect the performance of devices, e.g. zero bandgap for graphene; poor contact quality, low mobility and quantum efficiency for MoS2; and poor interparticle conductivity for nanoparticles. This thesis tries to explore a new way of combining these two categories of material into hybrids, so that the intrinsic limitations of materials from each category will be overcome by the other materials that are introduced into the hybrid. This thesis consists of five parts. The first part (Chapter 1) introduces the background and motivation of the thesis. The second part (Chapters 2, 3, 4, and 5) describes the detailed processes and methods, starting from preparing each element to the assembly of these element into a hybrid structure device.

This part also includes understanding the mechanisms of 2D and 3D self-assembly of nanoparticles. The third part (Chapter 6 and 7) describes two examples of hybrid structures, including the investigation of electron or molecule transfer inside the hybrid. The fourth part (Chapter 8) introduces other findings and technical innovations, including alternative ways of thin film nanoparticle self-assembly/deposition, and fabrication methods for the band structure analysis of transition metal dichalcogenides by angle resolved photo-electron spectroscopy. The fifth part (Chapter 9) describes several possible future work directions that could be investigated to improve the understanding of the nanoparticle assembly and translating the conceptual device into real applications.