skip to main content


Title: Synthesis of High‐Performance Monolayer Molybdenum Disulfide at Low Temperature
Abstract

The large‐area synthesis of high‐quality MoS2plays an important role in realizing industrial applications of optoelectronics, nanoelectronics, and flexible devices. However, current techniques for chemical vapor deposition (CVD)‐grown MoS2require a high synthetic temperature and a transfer process, which limits its utilization in device fabrications. Here, the direct synthesis of high‐quality monolayer MoS2with the domain size up to 120 µm by metal‐organic CVD (MOCVD) at a temperature of 320 °C is reported. Owing to the low‐substrate temperature, the MOCVD‐grown MoS2exhibits low impurity doping and nearly unstrained properties on the growth substrate, demonstrating enhanced electronic performance with high electron mobility of 68.3 cm2V−1s−1at room temperature. In addition, by tuning the precursor ratio, a better understanding of the MoS2growth process via a geometric model of the MoS2flake shape, is developed, which can provide further guidance for the synthesis of 2D materials.

 
more » « less
NSF-PAR ID:
10450861
Author(s) / Creator(s):
 ;  ;  ;  ;  ;  ;  ;  ;  ;  ;  ;  
Publisher / Repository:
Wiley Blackwell (John Wiley & Sons)
Date Published:
Journal Name:
Small Methods
Volume:
5
Issue:
6
ISSN:
2366-9608
Format(s):
Medium: X
Sponsoring Org:
National Science Foundation
More Like this
  1.  
    more » « less
  2. The 2D van der Waals crystals have shown great promise as potential future electronic materials due to their atomically thin and smooth nature, highly tailorable electronic structure, and mass production compatibility through chemical synthesis. Electronic devices, such as field effect transistors (FETs), from these materials require patterning and fabrication into desired structures. Specifically, the scale up and future development of “2D”-based electronics will inevitably require large numbers of fabrication steps in the patterning of 2D semiconductors, such as transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs). This is currently carried out via multiple steps of lithography, etching, and transfer. As 2D devices become more complex (e.g., numerous 2D materials, more layers, specific shapes, etc.), the patterning steps can become economically costly and time consuming. Here, we developed a method to directly synthesize a 2D semiconductor, monolayer molybdenum disulfide (MoS2), in arbitrary patterns on insulating SiO2/Si via seed-promoted chemical vapor deposition (CVD) and substrate engineering. This method shows the potential of using the prepatterned substrates as a master template for the repeated growth of monolayer MoS2patterns. Our technique currently produces arbitrary monolayer MoS2patterns at a spatial resolution of 2 μm with excellent homogeneity and transistor performance (room temperature electron mobility of 30 cm2V−1s−1and on–off current ratio of 107). Extending this patterning method to other 2D materials can provide a facile method for the repeatable direct synthesis of 2D materials for future electronics and optoelectronics.

     
    more » « less
  3. ABSTRACT Scalable synthesis of two-dimensional molybdenum disulfide (MoS 2 ) via chemical vapor deposition (CVD) is of considerable interests for many applications in electronics and optoelectronics. Here, we investigate the CVD growth of MoS 2 single crystals on sapphire substrates by using thermally evaporated molybdenum trioxide (MoO 3 ) thin films as molybdenum (Mo) source instead of conventionally used MoO 3 powder for co-evaporation synthesis. The MoO 3 thin film source provides uniform Mo vapor pressure in the growth chamber resulting in clean and reproducible MoS 2 triangles without any oxide or oxysulfide species. Scanning electron microscopy, Raman spectroscopy, photoluminescence spectroscopy and atomic force microscopy characterization were performed to characterize the growth results. Very high photoluminescence (PL) response was observed at 1.85 eV which is a good implication of high optical quality of these crystals directly grown on sapphire substrate. 
    more » « less
  4. Abstract

    Reproducible wafer-scale growth of two-dimensional (2D) materials using the Chemical Vapor Deposition (CVD) process with precise control over their properties is challenging due to a lack of understanding of the growth mechanisms spanning over several length scales and sensitivity of the synthesis to subtle changes in growth conditions. A multiscale computational framework coupling Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD), Phase-Field (PF), and reactive Molecular Dynamics (MD) was developed – called the CPM model – and experimentally verified. Correlation between theoretical predictions and thorough experimental measurements for a Metal-Organic CVD (MOCVD)-grown WSe2model material revealed the full power of this computational approach. Large-area uniform 2D materials are synthesized via MOCVD, guided by computational analyses. The developed computational framework provides the foundation for guiding the synthesis of wafer-scale 2D materials with precise control over the coverage, morphology, and properties, a critical capability for fabricating electronic, optoelectronic, and quantum computing devices.

     
    more » « less
  5. Metalorganic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) is a promising technique for wafer-scale synthesis of MoS2 monolayers for 2D field-effect transistors (2D-FETs) and related devices. Epitaxial growth of MoS2 on sapphire provides films that are crystallographically well-oriented but typically contain low-angle grain boundaries (e.g., mirror twins), voids, and other defects depending on growth conditions and substrate characteristics. In this study, we investigate microstructure, optical properties, and field-effect characteristics of wafer-scale MoS2 monolayers grown by MOCVD on c-plane sapphire over a narrow window of growth temperatures (900–1000 °C). The density of low-angle grain boundaries in the MoS2 monolayer was found to decrease dramatically from 50% areal coverage for films grown at 900 °C to 5% at 1000 °C. This decrease in low-angle grain boundary density is correlated with an increase in the room-temperature photoluminescence intensity of A excitons and a decrease in the full-width-half maximum (FWHM) of the Raman A1g peak, which are typically indicative of a general reduction in defects in MoS2. However, the best transport properties (e.g., mean field-effect mobility mFE = 17.3 cm2/V s) were obtained in MoS2 monolayers grown at an intermediate temperature of 950 °C. It was found that as the growth temperature increased, small regions bound by high-angle boundaries begin to appear within the monolayer and increase in areal coverage, from ∼2% at 900 °C to ∼5% at 950 °C to ∼10% at 1000 °C. The growth temperature of 950 °C, therefore, provides an intermediate condition where the combined effects of low-angle and high-angle boundaries are minimized. The results of this study provide guidance on MOCVD growth and characterization that can be used to further optimize the performance of MoS2 2D-FETs.

     
    more » « less