Large-scale alkali-assisted growth of monolayer and bilayer WSe<sub>2</sub> with a low defect density.

Chou, Sui-An; Chang, Chen; Wu, Bo-Hong; Chuu, Chih-Piao; Kuo, Pai-Chia; Pan, Liang-Hsuan; Huang, Kai-Chun; Lai, Man-Hong et al. · Nat Commun · 2025

basic_science · Level V

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Abstract

The development of p-type WSe<sub>2</sub> transistors has lagged behind n-type MoS<sub>2</sub> because of challenges in growing high-quality, large-area WSe<sub>2</sub> films. This study employs an alkali-assisted CVD (AACVD) method by using KOH to enhance nucleation on sapphire substrates, effectively promoting monolayer growth on c-plane sapphire and enabling controlled bilayer seeding on miscut surfaces with artificial steps. With AACVD, we achieve 2-inch monolayer and centimeter-scale bilayer WSe<sub>2</sub> films with defect densities as low as 1.6 × 10<sup>12 </sup>cm<sup>-2</sup> (monolayer) and 1.8 × 10<sup>12 </sup>cm<sup>-2</sup> (bilayer), comparable to exfoliated WSe<sub>2</sub>. Bilayer WSe<sub>2</sub> transistors exhibit hole/electron mobilities of 119/34 cm²/Vs, while monolayers achieve 105/22 cm²/Vs with suitable metal contacts. Additionally, bilayer WSe<sub>2</sub> demonstrates lower contact resistance for both n-type and p-type transistors, making it highly promising for future high-performance electronic applications.