Abstract
Only a few of the vast range of potential two-dimensional materials (2D) have been isolated or synthesised to date. Typically, 2D materials are discovered by mechanically exfoliating naturally occurring bulk crystals to produce atomically thin layers, after which a material-specific vapour synthesis method must be developed to grow interesting candidates in a scalable manner. Here we show a general approach for synthesising thin layers of two-dimensional binary compounds. We apply the method to obtain high quality, epitaxial MoS2 films, and extend the principle to the synthesis of a wide range of other materials—both well-known and never-before isolated—including transition metal sulphides, selenides, tellurides, and nitrides. This approach greatly simplifies the synthesis of currently known materials, and provides a general framework for synthesising both predicted and unexpected new 2D compounds.
Highlights
A few of the vast range of potential two-dimensional materials (2D) have been isolated or synthesised to date
angleresolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES) indicates that the MoS2 domains are primarily monolayers, based on the absence of a strong anti-bonding band at the Γ point that is characteristic of multilayer formation[26,27]
We have shown the synthesis of epitaxially aligned MoS2 layers whose properties—namely Raman spectroscopic response, nanoscale crystalline structure, intensity of PL response, and electric field-effect properties—are comparable to mechanically exfoliated monolayers from bulk crystals or high-quality films from more complex Chemical vapour deposition (CVD) processes
Summary
A few of the vast range of potential two-dimensional materials (2D) have been isolated or synthesised to date. We apply the method to obtain high quality, epitaxial MoS2 films, and extend the principle to the synthesis of a wide range of other materials—both wellknown and never-before isolated—including transition metal sulphides, selenides, tellurides, and nitrides. This approach greatly simplifies the synthesis of currently known materials, and provides a general framework for synthesising both predicted and unexpected new 2D compounds. Chemical vapour deposition (CVD) techniques for the scalable synthesis of these materials are available[6]; controlling the stoichiometry and the defect density can be challenging Such techniques typically employ solid metal oxide[7,8,9,10] or metal-organic[11] precursors which are chalcogenated at elevated temperatures. The process enables the epitaxial synthesis of both known and new 2D materials using a single recipe and simple elemental precursors, demonstrated here by the synthesis of 20 compounds including sulphides, selenides, tellurides, and nitrides
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