Epitaxial growth of large area single-crystalline few-layer MoS2 with high space charge mobility of 192 cm2 V−1 s−1

Abstract

We report on the vapor-solid growth of single crystalline few-layer MoS2 films on (0001)-oriented sapphire with excellent structural and electrical properties over centimeter length scale. High-resolution X-ray diffraction scans indicated that the films had good out-of-plane ordering and epitaxial registry. A carrier density of ∼2 × 1011 cm−2 and a room temperature mobility of 192 cm2/Vs were extracted from space-charge limited transport regime in the films. The electron mobility was found to exhibit in-plane anisotropy with a ratio of ∼1.8. Theoretical estimates of the temperature-dependent electron mobility including optical phonon, acoustic deformation potential, and remote ionized impurity scattering were found to satisfactorily match the measured data. The synthesis approach reported here demonstrates the feasibility of device quality few-layer MoS2 films with excellent uniformity and high quality.