Analysis of the interface characteristics of CVD-grown monolayer MoS2 by noise measurements.

We investigated the current-voltage and noise characteristics of two-dimensional (2D) monolayer molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) synthesized by chemical vapor deposition (CVD). A large number of trap states were produced during the CVD process of synthesizing MoS2, resulting in a disordered monolayer MoS2 system. The interface trap density between CVD-grown MoS2 and silicon dioxide was extracted from the McWhorter surface noise model. Notably, generation-recombination noise which is attributed to charge trap states was observed at the low carrier density regime. The relation between the temperature and resistance following the power law of a 2D inverted-random void model supports the idea that disordered CVD-grown monolayer MoS2 can be analyzed using a percolation theory. This study can offer a viewpoint to interpret synthesized low-dimensional materials as highly disordered systems.

Analysis of noise generation and electric conduction at grain boundaries in CVD-grown MoS2 field effect transistors.

Grain boundaries in a chemical vapour deposition (CVD)-grown monolayer of MoS2 induce significant effects on the electrical and low frequency noise characteristics of the MoS2. Here, we investigated the electrical properties and noise characteristics of MoS2 field effect transistors (FETs) made with CVD-grown monolayer MoS2. The electrical and noise characteristics of MoS2 FETs were analysed and compared for the MoS2 channel layers with and without grain boundaries. The grain boundary in the CVD-grown MoS2 FETs can be the dominant noise source, and dependence of the extracted Hooge parameters on the gate voltage indicated the domination of the correlated number-mobility fluctuation at the grain boundaries. The percolative noise characteristics of the single grain regions of MoS2 were concealed by the noise generated at the grain boundary. This study can enhance understanding of the electrical transport hindrance and significant noise generation by trapped charges at grain boundaries of the CVD-grown MoS2 devices.

Channel-Length-Modulated Avalanche Multiplication in Ambipolar WSe2 Field-Effect Transistors.

Recently there has been growing interest in avalanche multiplication in two-dimensional (2D) materials and device applications such as avalanche photodetectors and transistors. Previous studies have mainly utilized unipolar semiconductors as the active material and focused on developing high-performance devices. However, fundamental analysis of the multiplication process, particularly in ambipolar materials, is required to establish high-performance electronic devices and emerging architectures. Although ambipolar 2D materials have the advantage of facile carrier-type tuning through electrostatic gating, simultaneously allowing both carrier types in a single channel poses an inherent difficulty in analyzing their individual contributions to avalanche multiplication. In ambipolar field-effect transistors (FETs), two phenomena of ambipolar transport and avalanche multiplication can occur, and both exhibit secondary rise of output current at high lateral voltage. We distinguished these two competing phenomena using the method of channel length modulation and successfully analyzed the properties of electron- and hole-initiated multiplication in ambipolar WSe2 FETs. Our study provides a simple and robust method to examine carrier multiplication in ambipolar materials and will foster the development of high-performance atomically thin electronic devices utilizing avalanche multiplication.

Ultrasensitive Photodetection in MoS2 Avalanche Phototransistors.

Recently, there have been numerous studies on utilizing surface treatments or photosensitizing layers to improve photodetectors based on 2D materials. Meanwhile, avalanche breakdown phenomenon has provided an ultimate high-gain route toward photodetection in the form of single-photon detectors. Here, the authors report ultrasensitive avalanche phototransistors based on monolayer MoS2 synthesized by chemical vapor deposition. A lower critical field for the electrical breakdown under illumination shows strong evidence for avalanche breakdown initiated by photogenerated carriers in MoS2 channel. By utilizing the photo-initiated carrier multiplication, their avalanche photodetectors exhibit the maximum responsivity of ≈3.4 × 107 A W-1 and the detectivity of ≈4.3 × 1016 Jones under a low dark current, which are a few orders of magnitudes higher than the highest values reported previously, despite the absence of any additional chemical treatments or photosensitizing layers. The realization of both the ultrahigh photoresponsivity and detectivity is attributed to the interplay between the carrier multiplication by avalanche breakdown and carrier injection across a Schottky barrier between the channel and metal electrodes. This work presents a simple and powerful method to enhance the performance of photodetectors based on carrier multiplication phenomena in 2D materials and provides the underlying physics of atomically thin avalanche photodetectors.

Recent Advances in Interface Engineering of Transition-Metal Dichalcogenides with Organic Molecules and Polymers.

The interface engineering of two-dimensional (2D) transition-metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) has been regarded as a promising strategy to modulate their outstanding electrical and optoelectronic properties because of their inherent 2D nature and large surface-to-volume ratio. In particular, introducing organic molecules and polymers directly onto the surface of TMDs has been explored to passivate the surface defects or achieve better interfacial properties with neighboring surfaces efficiently, thus leading to great opportunities for the realization of high-performance TMD-based applications. This review provides recent progress in the interface engineering of TMDs with organic molecules and polymers corresponding to the modulation of their electrical and optoelectronic characteristics. Depending on the interfaces between the surface of TMDs and dielectric, conductive contacts or the ambient environment, we present various strategies to introduce an organic interlayer from materials to processing. In addition, the role of native defects on the surface of TMDs, such as adatoms or vacancies, in determining their electrical characteristics is also discussed in detail. Finally, the future challenges and opportunities associated with the interface engineering are highlighted.

Effect of Facile p-Doping on Electrical and Optoelectronic Characteristics of Ambipolar WSe2 Field-Effect Transistors.

We investigated the electrical and optoelectronic characteristics of ambipolar WSe2 field-effect transistors (FETs) via facile p-doping process during the thermal annealing in ambient. Through this annealing, the oxygen molecules were successfully doped into the WSe2 surface, which ensured higher p-type conductivity and the shift of the transfer curve to the positive gate voltage direction. Besides, considerably improved photoswitching response characteristics of ambipolar WSe2 FETs were achieved by the annealing in ambient. To explore the origin of the changes in electrical and optoelectronic properties, the analyses via X-ray photoelectron, Raman, and photoluminescence spectroscopies were performed. From these analyses, it turned out that WO3 layers formed by the annealing in ambient introduced p-doping to ambipolar WSe2 FETs, and disorders originated from the WO3/WSe2 interfaces acted as non-radiative recombination sites, leading to significantly improved photoswitching response time characteristics.

Intrinsic Optoelectronic Characteristics of MoS2 Phototransistors via a Fully Transparent van der Waals Heterostructure.

In the past decade, intensive studies on monolayer MoS2-based phototransistors have been carried out to achieve further enhanced optoelectronic characteristics. However, the intrinsic optoelectronic characteristics of monolayer MoS2 have still not been explored until now because of unintended interferences, such as multiple reflections of incident light originating from commonly used opaque substrates. This leads to overestimated photoresponsive characteristics inevitably due to the enhanced photogating and photoconductive effects. Here, we reveal the intrinsic photoresponsive characteristics of monolayer MoS2, including its internal responsivity and quantum efficiency, in fully transparent monolayer MoS2 phototransistors employing a van der Waals heterostructure. Interestingly, as opposed to the previous reports, the internal photoresponsive characteristics do not significantly depend on the wavelength of the incident light as long as the electron-hole pairs are generated in the same k-space. This study provides a deeper understanding of the photoresponsive characteristics of MoS2 and lays the foundation for two-dimensional materials-based transparent phototransistors.

Dose-dependent effect of proton irradiation on electrical properties of WSe2 ambipolar field effect transistors.

The irradiation effect of high energy proton beams on tungsten diselenide (WSe2) ambipolar field-effect transistors was investigated. We measured the electrical characteristics of the fabricated WSe2 FETs before and after the 10 MeV proton beam irradiation with different doses of 1012, 1013, 1014, and 1015 cm-2. For low dose conditions (1012, 1013, and 1014 cm-2), the threshold voltages shifted to the negative gate voltage direction, and the current in the hole and electron accumulation regimes decreased and increased, respectively. However, the trends were opposite for the high dose condition (1015 cm-2); the threshold voltages shifted to the positive gate voltage direction, and the current in the hole and electron accumulation regimes increased and decreased, respectively. These phenomena can be explained by the combined effect of proton irradiation-induced traps and the applied gate bias condition. Specifically, irradiation-induced positive oxide traps in SiO2 dielectrics play a role in enhancing electron accumulation and reducing hole accumulation in the WSe2 channel, whereas the irradiation-induced holes near the WSe2/SiO2 interface act as electron trapping sites, with enhancing hole accumulation and reducing electron accumulation in the WSe2 channel. This work will help improve the understanding of the effect of high energy irradiation on WSe2-based and other ambipolar nanoelectronic devices. In addition, this work shows the possibility of tuning the electrical properties of WSe2-based devices.

Contact-Engineered Electrical Properties of MoS2 Field-Effect Transistors via Selectively Deposited Thiol-Molecules.

Although 2D molybdenum disulfide (MoS2 ) has gained much attention due to its unique electrical and optical properties, the limited electrical contact to 2D semiconductors still impedes the realization of high-performance 2D MoS2 -based devices. In this regard, many studies have been conducted to improve the carrier-injection properties by inserting functional paths, such as graphene or hexagonal boron nitride, between the electrodes and 2D semiconductors. The reported strategies, however, require relatively time-consuming and low-yield transfer processes on sub-micrometer MoS2 flakes. Here, a simple contact-engineering method is suggested, introducing chemically adsorbed thiol-molecules as thin tunneling barriers between the metal electrodes and MoS2 channels. The selectively deposited thiol-molecules via the vapor-deposition process provide additional tunneling paths at the contact regions, improving the carrier-injection properties with lower activation energies in MoS2 field-effect transistors. Additionally, by inserting thiol-molecules at the only one contact region, asymmetric carrier-injection is feasible depending on the temperature and gate bias.

Two-Dimensional Thickness-Dependent Avalanche Breakdown Phenomena in MoS2 Field-Effect Transistors under High Electric Fields.

As two-dimensional (2D) transition metal dichalcogenides electronic devices are scaled down to the sub-micrometer regime, the active layers of these materials are exposed to high lateral electric fields, resulting in electrical breakdown. In this regard, understanding the intrinsic nature in layer-stacked 2D semiconducting materials under high lateral electric fields is necessary for the reliable applications of their field-effect transistors. Here, we explore the electrical breakdown phenomena originating from avalanche multiplication in MoS2 field-effect transistors with different layer thicknesses and channel lengths. Modulating the band structure and bandgap energy in MoS2 allows the avalanche multiplication to be controlled by adjusting the number of stacking layers. This phenomenon could be observed in transition metal dichalcogenide semiconducting systems due to its quantum confinement effect on the band structure. The relationship between the critical electric field for avalanche breakdown and bandgap energy is well fitted to a power law curve in both monolayer and multilayer MoS2.

Transparent Large-Area MoS2 Phototransistors with Inkjet-Printed Components on Flexible Platforms.

Two-dimensional (2D) transition-metal dichalcogenides (TMDCs) have gained considerable attention as an emerging semiconductor due to their promising atomically thin film characteristics with good field-effect mobility and a tunable band gap energy. However, their electronic applications have been generally realized with conventional inorganic electrodes and dielectrics implemented using conventional photolithography or transferring processes that are not compatible with large-area and flexible device applications. To facilitate the advantages of 2D TMDCs in practical applications, strategies for realizing flexible and transparent 2D electronics using low-temperature, large-area, and low-cost processes should be developed. Motivated by this challenge, we report fully printed transparent chemical vapor deposition (CVD)-synthesized monolayer molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) phototransistor arrays on flexible polymer substrates. All the electronic components, including dielectric and electrodes, were directly deposited with mechanically tolerable organic materials by inkjet-printing technology onto transferred monolayer MoS2, and their annealing temperature of <180 °C allows the direct fabrication on commercial flexible substrates without additional assisted-structures. By integrating the soft organic components with ultrathin MoS2, the fully printed MoS2 phototransistors exhibit excellent transparency and mechanically stable operation.

Tailoring the electrical properties of MoS2 field effect transistors by depositing Au nanoparticles and alkanethiol molecules.

We fabricated and characterized MoS2 field effect transistors. First, we measured the electrical properties of MoS2 field effect transistors (FETs) that were made with mechanically exfoliated MoS2 flakes. Then, we deposited Au nanoparticles on the MoS2 channel and measured the electrical properties. We observed whether the source-drain current increased or decreased after the Au particles were deposited. The deposited Au particles either formed an extra current path and increased the current or behaved as charge-withdrawing sites and decreased the current. Next, we deposited alkanethiol molecules on the Au particles to reduce the work function of the Au. Alkanethiol molecules are known to form a self-assembled monolayer on the Au surface, and the electric dipole moment of the molecules causes the work function of the Au to decrease. Au particles can capture electrons from the MoS2 channel due to their high work function. However, the decreased work function of the Au particles subjected to alkanethiol treatment could cause captured electrons to be released from the Au particles to MoS2. Therefore, the current increased after alkanethiol treatment. This study may provide useful methods to utilize surface treatments with particles and molecules to tailor the electrical properties of MoS2-based FETs.

Trap-mediated electronic transport properties of gate-tunable pentacene/MoS2 p-n heterojunction diodes.

We investigated the trap-mediated electronic transport properties of pentacene/molybdenum disulphide (MoS2) p-n heterojunction devices. We observed that the hybrid p-n heterojunctions were gate-tunable and were strongly affected by trap-assisted tunnelling through the van der Waals gap at the heterojunction interfaces between MoS2 and pentacene. The pentacene/MoS2 p-n heterojunction diodes had gate-tunable high ideality factor, which resulted from trap-mediated conduction nature of devices. From the temperature-variable current-voltage measurement, a space-charge-limited conduction and a variable range hopping conduction at a low temperature were suggested as the gate-tunable charge transport characteristics of these hybrid p-n heterojunctions. Our study provides a better understanding of the trap-mediated electronic transport properties in organic/2-dimensional material hybrid heterojunction devices.

Enhancement of photodetection characteristics of MoS2 field effect transistors using surface treatment with copper phthalocyanine.

Recently, two-dimensional materials such as molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) have been extensively studied as channel materials for field effect transistors (FETs) because MoS2 has outstanding electrical properties such as a low subthreshold swing value, a high on/off ratio, and good carrier mobility. In this study, we characterized the electrical and photo-responsive properties of MoS2 FET when stacking a p-type organic copper phthalocyanine (CuPc) layer on the MoS2 surface. We observed that the threshold voltage of MoS2 FET could be controlled by stacking the CuPc layers due to a charge transfer phenomenon at the interface. Particularly, we demonstrated that CuPc/MoS2 hybrid devices exhibited high performance as a photodetector compared with the pristine MoS2 FETs, caused by more electron-hole pairs separation at the p-n interface. Furthermore, we found the optimized CuPc thickness (∼2 nm) on the MoS2 surface for the best performance as a photodetector with a photoresponsivity of ∼1.98 A W(-1), a detectivity of ∼6.11 × 10(10) Jones, and an external quantum efficiency of ∼12.57%. Our study suggests that the MoS2 vertical hybrid structure with organic material can be promising as efficient photodetecting devices and optoelectronic circuits.

Electrical and Optical Characterization of MoS2 with Sulfur Vacancy Passivation by Treatment with Alkanethiol Molecules.

We investigated the physical properties of molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) atomic crystals with a sulfur vacancy passivation after treatment with alkanethiol molecules including their electrical, Raman, and photoluminescence (PL) characteristics. MoS2, one of the transition metal dichalcogenide materials, is a promising two-dimensional semiconductor material with good physical properties. It is known that sulfur vacancies exist in MoS2, resulting in the n-type behavior of MoS2. The sulfur vacancies on the MoS2 surface tend to form covalent bonds with sulfur-containing groups. In this study, we deposited alkanethiol molecules on MoS2 field effect transistors (FETs) and then characterized the electrical properties of the devices before and after the alkanethiol treatment. We observed that the electrical characteristics of MoS2 FETs dramatically changed after the alkanethiol treatment. We also observed that the Raman and PL spectra of MoS2 films changed after the alkanethiol treatment. These effects are attributed to the thiol (-SH) end groups in alkanethiols bonding at sulfur vacancy sites, thus altering the physical properties of the MoS2. This study will help us better understand the electrical and optical properties of MoS2 and suggest a way of tailoring the properties of MoS2 by passivating a sulfur vacancy with thiol molecules.