Analysis of Schottky barrier heights and reduced Fermi-level pinning in monolayer CVD-grown MoS2 field-effect-transistors

Abstract

Chemical vapor deposition (CVD)-grown monolayer (ML) molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) is a promising material for next-generation integrated electronic systems due to its capability of high-throughput synthesis and compatibility with wafer-scale fabrication. Several studies have described the importance of Schottky barriers in analyzing the transport properties and electrical characteristics of MoS2 field-effect-transistors (FETs) with metal contacts. However, the analysis is typically limited to single devices constructed from exfoliated flakes and should be verified for large-area fabrication methods. In this paper, CVD-grown ML MoS2 was utilized to fabricate large-area (1 cm × 1 cm) FET arrays. Two different types of metal contacts (i.e. Cr/Au and Ti/Au) were used to analyze the temperature-dependent electrical characteristics of ML MoS2 FETs and their corresponding Schottky barrier characteristics. Statistical analysis provides new insight about the properties of metal contacts on CVD-grown MoS2 compared to exfoliated samples. Reduced Schottky barrier heights (SBH) are obtained compared to exfoliated flakes, attributed to a defect-induced enhancement in metallization of CVD-grown samples. Moreover, the dependence of SBH on metal work function indicates a reduction in Fermi level pinning compared to exfoliated flakes, moving towards the Schottky–Mott limit. Optical characterization reveals higher defect concentrations in CVD-grown samples supporting a defect-induced metallization enhancement effect consistent with the electrical SBH experiments.