Using protons to tune interlayer forces in van-der-Waals materials

A Chinese-Australian collaboration has demonstrated for the first time that interlayer coupling in a van der Waals (vdW) material can be largely modulated by a protonic gate, 'injecting' protons into the device. The same weak interlayer forces that make vdW materials so easy to separate (eg, the famous Scotch-tape method of isolating graphene) also limit these materials' applications in future technology. Stronger interlayer coupling would significantly increase these materials' potential uses.