Strictly monolayer large continuous MoS2 films on diverse substrates and their luminescence properties

Abstract

Despite a tremendous interest on molybdenum disulfide as a thinnest direct band gap semiconductor, single step synthesis of a large area purely monolayer MoS2 film has not yet been reported. Here, we report a CVD route to synthesize a continuous film of strictly monolayer MoS2 covering an area as large as a few cm2 on a variety of different substrates without using any seeding material or any elaborate pretreatment of the substrate. This is achieved by allowing the growth to take place in the naturally formed gap between a piece of SiO2 coated Si wafer and the substrate, when the latter is placed on top of the former inside a CVD reactor. We propose a qualitative model to explain why the MoS2 films are always strictly monolayer in this method. The photoluminescence study of these monolayers shows the characteristic excitonic and trionic features associated with monolayer MoS2. In addition, a broad defect related luminescence band appears at ∼1.7 eV. As temperature decreases, the intensity of this broad feature increases, while the band edge luminescence reduces.