Thickness controlled nanostructure formation in RF sputtered WS2 thin film

Abstract

Large area high quality WS2 nanostructured thin films are grown on silicon at 350 °C substrate temperature using RF sputtered technique. XRD results show that the films are highly crystalline in nature with the observation of significance of 002 peak located ∼13°. FESEM images confirm that, the surface morphology can be modified easily by controlling the thickness and growth temperature of the films. Interestingly, the planar films slowly transform to nanostructure with increase of the film thickness which is also observed by AFM results. The observation of two strong Raman peak further conform the formation of WS2 film on Si substrate. Temperature dependent I–V curve behaves the films are pure semiconducting in nature and resistivity of the sample is decreased by increasing temperature. This exciting finding encourages WS2 based metal-chalcogenide is a potential candidate for its use in several semiconductor and other electronic devices.