Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Layer-by-layer epitaxy growth of thickness-controllable two-dimensional tungsten disulfide

  • Research Paper
  • Published:
Science China Information Sciences Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Bilayer transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) balance the high mobility of single layers with the high state density of multilayers and therefore have promising application prospects in high-performance electronics. However, the layer-controlled growth of 2D materials is still confronted with challenges such as poor repeatability between different labs and a limited understanding of the growth mechanism at the atomic scale. Herein, we report a new carbon-assisted chemical vapor deposition process that can realize the growth of WS2 sheets with high yield, precise thickness controllability, and repeatability. We show that carbon can act as a reducing agent and catalyst that preferentially reacts with the WO3 precursor to form intermediate WO3−x products with low-valence state W. The resulting oxycarbide gas has a low surface adsorption energy when deposited on the surface of as-grown WS2, which provides nucleation sites for the subsequent layer of WS2 growth and leads to the vertical growth of WS2 sheets. The growth mechanism is thoroughly investigated. Electrical transport measurements show that the produced bilayer WS2 possesses a high carrier mobility (up to 58 cm2·V−1·s−1) and small subthreshold swing (estimated to be 148 mV/decade), which are among the best reported results for TMDs produced using CVD.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Wang S, Liu X, Xu M, et al. Two-dimensional devices and integration towards the silicon lines. Nat Mater, 2022, 21: 1225–1239

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Liu Y, Duan X, Shin H J, et al. Promises and prospects of two-dimensional transistors. Nature, 2021, 591: 43–53

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Sun X, Zhu C, Yi J, et al. Reconfigurable logic-in-memory architectures based on a two-dimensional van der Waals heterostructure device. Nat Electron, 2022, 5: 752–760

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Li D, Chen M, Sun Z, et al. Two-dimensional non-volatile programmable p-n junctions. Nat Nanotech, 2017, 12: 901–906

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Ning H K, Yu Z H, Li T T, et al. From lab to fab: path forward for 2D material electronics. Sci China Inf Sci, 2023, 66: 160411

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Lin Y C, Torsi R, Younas R, et al. Recent advances in 2D material theory, synthesis, properties, and applications. ACS Nano, 2023, 17: 9694–9747

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Liang J, Zhu X, Chen M, et al. Controlled growth of two-dimensional heterostructures: in-plane epitaxy or vertical stack. Acc Mater Res, 2022, 3: 999–1010

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Gao Q, Zhang Z, Xu X, et al. Scalable high performance radio frequency electronics based on large domain bilayer MoS2. Nat Commun, 2018, 9: 4778

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Shi X, Li X, Guo Q, et al. Ultrashort channel chemical vapor deposited bilayer WS2 field-effect transistors. Appl Phys Rev, 2023, 10: 011405

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Yang R, Feng S, Xiang J, et al. Ultrahigh-gain and fast photodetectors built on atomically thin bilayer tungsten disulfide grown by chemical vapor deposition. ACS Appl Mater Interfaces, 2017, 9: 42001–42010

    Article  Google Scholar 

  11. Liu X J, Yu Y, Liu D, et al. Coupling of photon emitters in monolayer WS2 with a photonic waveguide based on bound states in the continuum. Nano Lett, 2023, 23: 3209–3216

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. Liu Y, Guo J, Zhu E, et al. Approaching the Schottky-Mott limit in van der Waals metal-semiconductor junctions. Nature, 2018, 557: 696–700

    Article  Google Scholar 

  13. Zhang Z, Liu Y, Dai C, et al. Highly selective synthesis of monolayer or bilayer WSe2 single crystals by pre-annealing the solid precursor. Chem Mater, 2021, 33: 1307–1313

    Article  Google Scholar 

  14. Moon G, Min S Y, Han C, et al. Atomically thin synapse networks on van der Waals photo-memtransistors. Adv Mater, 2023, 35

  15. Fang M, Wang F, Han Y, et al. Controlled growth of bilayer-MoS2 films and MoS2-based field-effect transistor (FET) performance optimization. Adv Elect Mater, 2018, 4: 1700524

    Article  Google Scholar 

  16. Zhou J, Lin J, Huang X, et al. A library of atomically thin metal chalcogenides. Nature, 2018, 556: 355–359

    Article  Google Scholar 

  17. Liu L, Li T, Ma L, et al. Uniform nucleation and epitaxy of bilayer molybdenum disulfide on sapphire. Nature, 2022, 605: 69–75

    Article  Google Scholar 

  18. Zhang X, Nan H, Xiao S, et al. Transition metal dichalcogenides bilayer single crystals by reverse-flow chemical vapor epitaxy. Nat Commun, 2019, 10: 598

    Article  Google Scholar 

  19. Wang Q, Tang J, Li X, et al. Layer-by-layer epitaxy of multi-layer MoS2 wafers. Natl Sci Rev, 2022, 9: nwac077

    Article  Google Scholar 

  20. Huang L Y, Li M Y, Liew S L, et al. Area-selective growth of two-dimensional mono- and bilayer WS2 for field effect transistors. ACS Mater Lett, 2023, 5: 1760–1766

    Article  Google Scholar 

  21. Liang J, Zhang L, Li X, et al. Carbon-nanoparticle-assisted growth of high quality bilayer WS2 by atmospheric pressure chemical vapor deposition. Nano Res, 2019, 12: 2802–2807

    Article  Google Scholar 

  22. Xue H, Wu G, Zhao B, et al. High-temperature in situ investigation of chemical vapor deposition to reveal growth mechanisms of monolayer molybdenum disulfide. ACS Appl Electron Mater, 2020, 2: 1925–1933

    Article  Google Scholar 

  23. Zeng Z, Sun X, Zhang D, et al. Controlled vapor growth and nonlinear optical applications of large-area 3R phase WS2 and WSe2 atomic layers. Adv Funct Mater, 2019, 29: 1806874

    Article  Google Scholar 

  24. Frey G L, Rothschild A, Sloan J, et al. Investigations of nonstoichiometric tungsten oxide nanoparticles. J Solid State Chem, 2001, 162: 300–314

    Article  Google Scholar 

  25. Qian J, Zhao Z, Shen Z, et al. Oxide vacancies enhanced visible active photocatalytic W19O55 NMRs via strong adsorption. RSC Adv, 2016, 6: 8061–8069

    Article  Google Scholar 

  26. Li X, Zhang J, Zhou N, et al. Insight into the Role of H2 in WS2 growth by chemical vapor deposition. ACS Appl Electron Mater, 2021, 3: 5138–5146

    Article  Google Scholar 

  27. Imran M, Alenezy E, Sabri Y, et al. Enhanced amperometric acetone sensing using electrospun non-stoichiometric WO3−x nanofibers. J Mater Chem C, 2021, 9: 671–678

    Article  Google Scholar 

  28. Lan C, Li C, Ho J C, et al. 2D WS2: from vapor phase synthesis to device applications. Adv Elect Mater, 2021, 7: 2000688

    Article  Google Scholar 

  29. van der Vlies A J, Kishan G, Niemantsverdriet J W, et al. Basic reaction steps in the sulfidation of crystalline tungsten oxides. J Phys Chem B, 2002, 106: 3449–3457

    Article  Google Scholar 

  30. Liu Z, Murphy A W A, Kuppe C, et al. WS2 nanotubes, 2D nanomeshes, and 2D in-plane films through one single chemical vapor deposition route. ACS Nano, 2019, 13: 3896–3909

    Article  Google Scholar 

  31. Miakota D I, Unocic R R, Bertoldo F, et al. A facile strategy for the growth of high-quality tungsten disulfide crystals mediated by oxygen-deficient oxide precursors. Nanoscale, 2022, 14: 9485–9497

    Article  Google Scholar 

  32. Li F, Feng Y, Li Z, et al. Rational kinetics control toward universal growth of 2D vertically stacked heterostructures. Adv Mater, 2019, 31: e1901351

    Article  Google Scholar 

  33. Pan B, Zhang K, Ding C, et al. Universal precise growth of 2D transition-metal dichalcogenides in vertical direction. ACS Appl Mater Interfaces, 2020, 12: 35337–35344

    Article  Google Scholar 

  34. Chen J, Jung G S, Ryu G H, et al. Atomically sharp dual grain boundaries in 2D WS2 bilayers. Small, 2019, 15: e1902590

    Article  Google Scholar 

  35. Chen Y, Jiang Y, Yi C, et al. Efficient control of emission and carrier polarity in WS2 monolayer by indium doping. Sci China Mater, 2021, 64: 1449–1456

    Article  Google Scholar 

  36. Sun X X, Zhu C G, Liu H W, et al. Contact and injection engineering for low SS reconfigurable FETs and high gain complementary inverters. Sci Bull, 2020, 65: 2007–2013

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by National Key R&D Program of China (Grant Nos. 2022YFA1402501, 2022YFA-1204300), National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 52372146, 62375081, U22A20138, 51972105, 52221001 62090035), Key Program of Science and Technology Department of Hunan Province (Grant Nos. 2019XK2001 2020XK2001), Science and Technology Innovation Program of Hunan Province (Grant No. 2021RC3061), and Natural Science Foundation of Hunan Province (Grant No. 2021JJ20016), Natural Science Foundation of Tianjin (Grant No. 20JCYBJC00390), and Open Project Program of Key Laboratory of Nanodevices and Applications, Suzhou Institute of Nano-Tech and Nano-Bionics, Chinese Academy of Sciences (Grant No. 22ZS01).

Author information

Author notes

  1. Liang J Y, Zou Z X, and Liang J W have the same contribution to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory for Micro-Nano Physics and Technology of Hunan Province, State Key Laboratory of Chemo/Biosensing and Chemometrics, Hunan Institute of Optoelectronic Integration, College of Materials Science and Engineering, School of Physics and Electronics, Hunan University, Changsha, 410082, China

    Jieyuan Liang, Biao Wang, Anshi Chu, Jiali Yi, Cheng Zhang, Lizhen Fang, Tian Zhang, Huawei Liu, Xiaoli Zhu, Dong Li & Anlian Pan

  2. School of Physics and Electronics, Hunan Normal University, Changsha, 410081, China

    Anlian Pan

  3. School of Electronic Information and Electrical Engineering, Changsha University, Changsha, 410022, China

    Zixing Zou

  4. School of Physics and Telecommunication Engineering, Yulin Normal University, Yulin, 537000, China

    Junwu Liang

  5. Units Semiconductor Technology Co., Ltd., Nanjing, 210000, China

    Di Wang

Authors
  1. Jieyuan Liang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Zixing Zou
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Junwu Liang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Di Wang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Biao Wang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. Anshi Chu
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  7. Jiali Yi
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  8. Cheng Zhang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  9. Lizhen Fang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  10. Tian Zhang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  11. Huawei Liu
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  12. Xiaoli Zhu
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  13. Dong Li
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  14. Anlian Pan
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Xiaoli Zhu, Dong Li or Anlian Pan.

Additional information

Supporting information Appendix A. The supporting information is available online at info.scichina.com and link.springer.com. The supporting materials are published as submitted, without typesetting or editing. The responsibility for scientific accuracy and content remains entirely with the authors.

Electronic supplementary material

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Liang, J., Zou, Z., Liang, J. et al. Layer-by-layer epitaxy growth of thickness-controllable two-dimensional tungsten disulfide. Sci. China Inf. Sci. 67, 152404 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11432-023-3941-4

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Revised:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11432-023-3941-4

Keywords

Search

Navigation