Substrate-dependent degradation of thin TMDC layers in ambient conditions

Abstract

In this work, substrate-dependent degradation of thin layers of transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDC) is demonstrated. The energy barrier heights of the MoSe2/Au and MoSe2/Ni heterojunctions were studied using Kelvin probe force microscopy. The effect of the barrier height on the photodegradation process is shown. The results show that the Ni-covered substrate promotes the photodegradation process in the few-layer MoSe2 flake. While the Au-covered substrate depresses it. The results of this work show the importance of choosing a substrate for the stability of devices based on thin MoSe2 layers and might be useful for creating devices based on thin TMDC layers.