Self-Limiting Growth of Monolayer Tungsten Disulfide Nanoribbons on Tungsten Oxide Nanowires.

Transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDCs) are promising two-dimensional (2D) materials for next-generation optoelectronic devices; they can also provide opportunities for further advances in physics. Structuring 2D TMDC sheets as nanoribbons has tremendous potential for electronic state modification. However, a bottom-up synthesis of long TMDC nanoribbons with high monolayer selectivity on a large scale has not yet been reported yet. In this study, we successfully synthesized long WxOy nanowires and grew monolayer WS2 nanoribbons on their surface. The supply of source atoms from a vapor-solid bilayer and chemical reaction at the atomic-scale interface promoted a self-limiting growth process. The developed method exhibited a high monolayer selection yield on a large scale and enabled the growth of long (∼100 µm) WS2 nanoribbons with electronic properties characterized by optical spectroscopy and electrical transport measurements. The produced nanoribbons were isolated from WxOy nanowires by mechanical exfoliation and used as channels for field-effect transistors. The findings of this study can be used in future optoelectronic device applications and advanced physics research.

Surface Diffusion-Limited Growth of Large and High-Quality Monolayer Transition Metal Dichalcogenides in Confined Space of Microreactor.

Transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDCs), including MoS2 and WS2, are potential candidates for next-generation semiconducting materials owing to their atomically thin structure and strong optoelectrical responses, which allow for flexible optoelectronic applications. Monolayer TMDCs have been grown utilizing chemical vapor deposition (CVD) techniques. Enhancing the domain size with high crystallinity and forming heterostructures are important topics for practical applications. In this study, the size of monolayer WS2 increased via the vapor-liquid-solid growth-based CVD technique utilizing the confined space of the substrate-stacked microreactor. The use of spin-coated metal salts (Na2WO4 and Na2MoO4) and organosulfur vapor allowed us to precisely control the source supply and investigate the growth in a systematic manner. We obtained a relatively low activation energy for growth (1.02 eV), which is consistent with the surface diffusion-limited growth regime observed in the confined space. Through systematic photoluminescence (PL) analysis, we determined that a growth temperature of ∼820 °C is optimal for producing high-quality WS2 with a narrow PL peak width (∼35 meV). By controlling the source balance of W and S, we obtained large-sized fully monolayered WS2 (∼560 µm) and monolayer WS2 with bilayer spots (∼1100 µm). Combining two distinct sources of transition metals, WS2/MoS2 lateral heterostructures were successfully created. In electrical transport measurements, the monolayer WS2 grown under optimal conditions has a high on-current (∼70 µA/µm), on/off ratio (∼5 × 108), and a field-effect mobility of ∼7 cm2/(V s). The field-effect transistor displayed an intrinsic photoresponse with wavelength selectivity that originated from the photoexcited carriers.