We utilize mechanical exfoliation to fabricate atomically thin layers out of various bulk materials (graphite, hexagonal boron nitride, transition-metal dichalcogenides). Using deterministic transfer processes, we stack these layers into van der Waals heterostructures.

Atomically thin layers of ReS₂ are visible in optical microscopy using (a) bright-field and (b) transmission geometry (see P. Nagler et al., Observation of anisotropic interlayer Raman modes in few-layer ReS₂, Phys. Status Solidi RRL 10, 185 (2016)). (c) Monolayers of transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) (here WS₂) can be encapsulated between thin layers of hexagonal boron nitride (see P. Nagler et al., Zeeman Splitting and Inverted Polarization of Biexciton Emission in Monolayer WS₂,Phys. Rev. Lett. 121, 057402 (2018)). (d) Large-area heterostructures consisting of different TMD monolayers can be crystallographically aligned using well-defined cleavage edges (see P. Nagler et al., Interlayer exciton dynamics in a dichalcogenide monolayer heterostructure, 2D Mater. 4, 025112 (2017)).