Electrical Transport Properties of Polycrystalline Monolayer Molybdenum Disulfide

Semiconducting MoS₂ monolayers have shown many promising electrical properties, and the inevitable polycrystallinity in synthetic, large-area films renders understanding the effect of structural defects, such as grain boundaries (GBs, or line-defects in two-dimensional materials), essential. In this work, we first examine the role of GBs in the electrical-transport properties of MoS₂ monolayers with varying line-defect densities. We reveal a systematic degradation of electrical characteristics as the line-defect density increases. The two common MoS₂ GB types and their specific roles are further examined, and we find that only tilt GBs have a considerable effect on the MoS₂ electrical properties. By examining the electronic states and sources of disorder using temperature-dependent transport studies, we adopt the Anderson model for disordered systems to explain the observed transport behaviors in different temperature regimes. Our results elucidate the roles played by GBs in different scenarios and give insights into their underlying scattering mechanisms

Vertical 2D/3D Semiconductor Heterostructures Based on Epitaxial Molybdenum Disulfide and Gallium Nitride

When designing semiconductor heterostructures, it is expected that epitaxial alignment will facilitate low-defect interfaces and efficient vertical transport. Here, we report lattice-matched epitaxial growth of molybdenum disulfide (MoS₂) directly on gallium nitride (GaN), resulting in high-quality, unstrained, single-layer MoS₂ with strict registry to the GaN lattice. These results present a promising path toward the implementation of high-performance electronic devices based on 2D/3D vertical heterostructures, where each of the 3D and 2D semiconductors is both a template for subsequent epitaxial growth and an active component of the device. The MoS₂ monolayer triangles average 1 μm along each side, with monolayer blankets (merged triangles) exhibiting properties similar to that of single-crystal MoS₂ sheets. Photoluminescence, Raman, atomic force microscopy, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy analyses identified monolayer MoS₂ with a prominent 20-fold enhancement of photoluminescence in the center regions of larger triangles. The MoS₂/GaN structures are shown to electrically conduct in the out-of-plane direction, confirming the potential of directly synthesized 2D/3D semiconductor heterostructures for vertical current flow. Finally, we estimate a MoS₂/GaN contact resistivity to be less than 4 Ω·cm² and current spreading in the MoS₂ monolayer of approximately 1 μm in diameter