No Arabic abstract
Doping is an effective way to modify the electronic property of two-dimensional (2D) materials and endow them with new functionalities. However, wide-range control of the substitutional doping concentration with large scale uniformity remains challenging in 2D materials. Here we report in-situ chemical vapor deposition growth of vanadium (V) doped monolayer molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) with widely tunable doping concentrations ranging from 0.3 to 13.1 at%. The key to regulate the doping concentration lies in the use of appropriate V precursors with different doping abilities, which also generate a large-scale uniform doping effect. Artificial synaptic transistors were fabricated by using the heavily doped MoS2 as the channel material for the first time. Synaptic potentiation, depression and repetitive learning processes are mimicked by the gate-tunable channel conductance change in such transistors with abundant V atoms to trap/detrap electrons. This work shows a feasible method to dope monolayer 2D semiconductors and demonstrates their use in artificial synaptic transistors.
Dilute magnetic semiconductors, achieved through substitutional doping of spin-polarized transition metals into semiconducting systems, enable experimental modulation of spin dynamics in ways that hold great promise for novel magneto-electric or magneto-optical devices, especially for two-dimensional systems such as transition metal dichalcogenides that accentuate interactions and activate valley degrees of freedom. Practical applications of 2D magnetism will likely require room-temperature operation, air stability, and (for magnetic semiconductors) the ability to achieve optimal doping levels without dopant aggregation. Here we describe room-temperature ferromagnetic order obtained in semiconducting vanadium-doped tungsten disulfide monolayers produced by a reliable single-step film sulfidation method across an exceptionally wide range of vanadium concentrations, up to 12 at% with minimal dopant aggregation. These monolayers develop p-type transport as a function of vanadium incorporation and rapidly reach ambipolarity. Ferromagnetism peaks at an intermediate vanadium concentration of a few atomic percent and decreases for higher concentrations, which is consistent with quenching due to orbital hybridization at closer vanadium-vanadium spacings, as supported by transmission electron microscopy, magnetometry and first-principles calculations. Room-temperature two-dimensional dilute magnetic semiconductors provide a new component to expand the functional scope of van der Waals heterostructures and bring semiconducting magnetic 2D heterostructures them into the realm of practical application.
The microscopic process of oxidative etching of two-dimensional molybdenum disulfide (2D MoS2) at an atomic scale is investigated using a correlative TEM-etching study. MoS2 flakes on graphene TEM grids are precisely tracked and characterized by TEM before and after the oxidative etching. This allows us to determine the structural change with an atomic resolution on the edges of the domains, of well-oriented triangular pits and along the grain boundaries. We observe that the etching mostly starts from the open edges, grain boundaries and pre-existing atomic defects. A zigzag Mo edge is assigned as the dominant termination of the triangular pits, and profound terraces and grooves are observed on the etched edges. Based on the statistical TEM analysis, we reveal possible routes for the kinetics of the oxidative etching in 2D MoS2, which should also be applicable for other 2D transition metal dichalcogenide materials like MoSe2 and WS2.
Edge structures are highly relevant to the electronic, magnetic and catalytic properties of two-dimensional (2D) transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) and their one dimensional (1D) counterpart, i.e., nanoribbons, which should be precisely tailored for the desirable applications. In this work, we report the formation of novel Mo6S6 nanowire (NW) terminated edges in a monolayer molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) via an e-beam irradiation process combined with high temperature heating in a scanning transmission electron microscope (STEM). Atomic structures of NW terminated edges and the dynamic formation process were observed experimentally. Further analysis shows that NW terminated edge could form on both Mo-zigzag (ZZ) edge and S-ZZ edge which can exhibit even higher stability superior to the pristine zigzag (ZZ) and armchair (AC) edge. In addition, the analogous edge structures can be also formed in MoS2 nanoribbon and other TMDs material such as MoxW1-xSe2. We believe that the presence of these novel edge structures in 2D and 1D TMD materials may provide novel properties and new opportunities for their versatile applications including catalytic, spintronic and electronic devices.
Layered two-dimensional (2D) semiconducting transition metal dichalcogenides (TMD) have been widely isolated, synthesized, and characterized recently. Numerous 2D materials are identified as the potential candidates as channel materials for future thin film technology due to their high mobility and the exhibiting bandgaps. While many TMD filed-effect transistors (FETs) have been widely demonstrated along with a significant progress to clearly understand the device physics, large contact resistance at metal/semiconductor interface still remain a challenge. From 2D device research point of view, how to minimize the Schottky barrier effects on contacts thus reduce the contact resistance of metals on 2D materials is very critical for the further development of the field. Here, we present a review of contact research on molybdenum disulfide and other TMD FETs from the fundamental understanding of metal-semiconductor interfaces on 2D materials. A clear contact research strategy on 2D semiconducting materials is developed for future high-performance 2D FETs with aggressively scaled dimensions.
The interface between two-dimensional semiconductors and metal contacts is an important topic of research of nanoelectronic devices based on two-dimensional semiconducting materials such as molybdenum disulfide (MoS2). We report transport properties of thin MoS2 flakes in a field-effect transistor geometry with Ti/Au and Al contacts. In contrast to widely used Ti/Au contacts, the conductance of flakes with Al contacts exhibits a smaller gate-voltage dependence, which is consistent with a substantial electron doping effect of the Al contacts. The temperature dependence of two-terminal conductance for the Al contacts is also considerably smaller than for the Ti/Au contacts, in which thermionic emission and thermally assisted tunneling play a dominant role. This result is explained in terms of the assumption that the carrier injection mechanism at an Al contact is dominated by tunneling that is not thermally activated.