Synthesis and Characterization of ReS2 and ReSe2 Layered Chalcogenide Single Crystals

Abstract

We report the synthesis of high-quality single crystals of ReS2 and ReSe2 transition metal dichalcogenides using a modified Bridgman method that avoids the use of a halogen transport agent. Comprehensive structural characterization using X-ray diffraction and electron microscopy confirm a distorted triclinic 1T′ structure for both crystals and reveal a lack of Bernal stacking in ReS2. Photoluminescence (PL) measurements on ReS2 show a layer-independent bandgap of 1.51 eV, with increased PL intensity from thicker flakes, confirming interlayer coupling to be negligible in this material. For ReSe2, the bandgap is weakly layer-dependent and decreases from 1.31 eV for thin layers to 1.29 eV in thick flakes. Both chalcogenides show feature-rich Raman spectra whose excitation energy dependence was studied. The lower background doping inherent to our crystal growth process results in high field-effect mobility values of 79 and 0.8 cm2/(V s) for ReS2 and ReSe2, respectively, as extracted from FET structures fabric...