Liquid Precursor-Mediated Epitaxial Growth of Highly Oriented 2D van der Waals Semiconductors toward High-Performance Electronics

Epitaxial growth of highly oriented transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) has been extensively studied to preserve their intrinsic properties and realize functional devices based on their superior material characteristics. However, the development of a facile synthesis approach with broad applicability for achieving aligned TMDs is challenging, particularly in terms of liquid-precursor-based chemical vapor deposition (CVD). Therefore, an innovative CVD growth model that enabled epitaxial growth of highly oriented TMDs using liquid precursors was proposed in this study. The vapor pressure of the chalcogen was found to significantly affect the growth dynamics of TMDs, with the quasi-static distribution promoting the migration of sulfur atoms to energetically favorable sites guided by the lattice structure of the substrate; this enabled the growth of highly aligned TMDs. Moreover, the aligned MoS2 exhibited remarkable electrical properties compared to those of previously reported TMDs synthesized via liquid-precursor-mediated CVD. These results provide important insights into the growth kinetics for the synthesis of highly oriented TMDs.