Synthesis of large size monolayer MoS2 with a simple chemical vapor deposition

Abstract

Monolayer molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) has recently aroused the great interest of researchers due to its direct-gap property and potential applications in electronics, catalysis, photovoltaics, and optoelectronics. Chemical vapor deposition (CVD) has been one of the most practical methods of synthesizing large-area and high-quality monolayer MoS2. However, The process of preparation is complex and cumbersome. Here we report that high-quality monolayer MoS2 can be obtained through using sulfurization of MoO3 by a simple and convenient CVD on sapphire substrates.The substrate cleaning is simplified. Substrates are cleaned in detergent solution, deionized water and acetone without sopropanol or piranha solution (H2SO4/H2O2=3:1) in sequence, avoiding their potential dangers. The MoO3 powder (Alfa Aesar, 99.995%, 0.02 g) is placed in an alumina boat, and a sapphire substrate is faced down and is placed 6 cm away from MoO3 powder in the same boat. The sapphire substrate is placed in the center of the heating zone of the furnace. Another alumina boat containing sulfur powder (Alfa Aesar, 99.999%, 0.2 g) is placed upstream with respect to the gas flow direction in the low temperature area. We adopt an atmospheric pressure chemical vapor deposition method, so it does not require a vacuum process. After 30 min of Ar purging, the furnace temperature is directly increased from room temperature to 800 ℃ in 30 min, reducing the heating steps. After 60 min, the furnace is cooled down naturally to room temperature. Optical microscopy (OM) images, Raman spectra and photoluminescence (PL) are all obtained by confocal Raman microscopic system (LabRAM HR Evolution). From the OM images, we can see that isolated islands (triangles) have edge lengths up to 50 m, which is far larger than that grown by micromechanical exfoliation. The color of the triangles is uniform, which has a strong contrast with the substrate. We can obtain a preliminary result that the sample is a uniform monolayer MoS2. Raman spectra are collected for MoS2 samples on sapphire substrates. Two typical Raman active modes can be found: E2g1 at 386.4 cm-1 and A1g at 406 cm-1 ( =19.6 cm-1), which correspond to single-layered MoS2 sample. Raman mapping shows that the sample is a uniform monolayer MoS2. The PL spectrum of MoS2 shows a pronounced emission peak at 669 nm, which is consistent with other reported results for MoS2 thin sheets obtained from exfoliation methods. When the layer number of MoS2 decreases, with its bandgap transforming from indirect to direct one, the fluorescence efficiency will be significantly enhanced. So the results further prove that the sample is high-quality monolayer MoS2.