Fast growth of large-grain and continuous MoS<sub>2</sub> films through a self-capping vapor-liquid-solid method.

Chang, Ming-Chiang; Ho, Po-Hsun; Tseng, Mao-Feng; Lin, Fang-Yuan; Hou, Cheng-Hung; Lin, I-Kuan; Wang, Hsin; Huang, Pin-Pin et al. · Nat Commun · 2020

basic_science · Level V

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Abstract

Most chemical vapor deposition methods for transition metal dichalcogenides use an extremely small amount of precursor to render large single-crystal flakes, which usually causes low coverage of the materials on the substrate. In this study, a self-capping vapor-liquid-solid reaction is proposed to fabricate large-grain, continuous MoS<sub>2</sub> films. An intermediate liquid phase-Na<sub>2</sub>Mo<sub>2</sub>O<sub>7</sub> is formed through a eutectic reaction of MoO<sub>3</sub> and NaF, followed by being sulfurized into MoS<sub>2</sub>. The as-formed MoS<sub>2</sub> seeds function as a capping layer that reduces the nucleation density and promotes lateral growth. By tuning the driving force of the reaction, large mono/bilayer (1.1 mm/200 μm) flakes or full-coverage films (with a record-high average grain size of 450 μm) can be grown on centimeter-scale substrates. The field-effect transistors fabricated from the full-coverage films show high mobility (33 and 49 cm<sup>2</sup> V<sup>-1</sup> s<sup>-1</sup> for the mono and bilayer regions) and on/off ratio (1 ~ 5 × 10<sup>8</sup>) across a 1.5 cm × 1.5 cm region.