Thinning of Exfoliated Molybdenum Disulfide by Thermal Oxidation

Abstract

In this work, we demonstrate the thinning of an exfoliated molybdenum disulfide flake by thermal oxidation as first demonstrated by Jumiati Wu et. al. Using this technique we achieve a thinning of an exfoliated flake from 7nm to 2nm. In addition, we attempt to thin a second flake synthesized by chemical vapor deposition initially 3nm thick. Unfortunately the thinning process completely destroyed the synthesized flake as shown by optical microscopy