Liquid Phase Edge Epitaxy of Transition-Metal Dichalcogenide Monolayers

Sabir Hussain; Rui Zhou; You Li; Ziyue Qian; Zunaira Urooj; Misbah Younas; Zhaoyang Zhao; Qinghua Zhang; Wenlong Dong; Yueyang Wu; Xiaokai Zhu; Kangkang Wang; Yuansha Chen; Luqi Liu; Liming Xie

doi:10.1021/jacs.3c02471

Liquid Phase Edge Epitaxy of Transition-Metal Dichalcogenide Monolayers

J Am Chem Soc. 2023 May 24;145(20):11348-11355. doi: 10.1021/jacs.3c02471. Epub 2023 May 12.

Authors

Sabir Hussain¹, Rui Zhou^{1

2}, You Li^{1

2}, Ziyue Qian^{1

2}, Zunaira Urooj^{1

2}, Misbah Younas^{1

2}, Zhaoyang Zhao^{1

2}, Qinghua Zhang³, Wenlong Dong^{1

2}, Yueyang Wu⁴, Xiaokai Zhu^{1

2}, Kangkang Wang^{1

2}, Yuansha Chen³, Luqi Liu^{1

2}, Liming Xie^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ CAS Key Laboratory of Standardization and Measurement for Nanotechnology, National Center for Nanoscience and Technology, Beijing 100190, China.
² University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China.
³ Beijing National Laboratory for Condensed Matter Physics, Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China.
⁴ Key Laboratory of Organic Optoelectronics and Molecular Engineering of the Ministry of Education, Department of Chemistry, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China.

PMID: 37172002
DOI: 10.1021/jacs.3c02471

Abstract

Precise monolayer epitaxy is important for two-dimensional (2D) semiconductors toward future electronics. Here, we report a new self-limited epitaxy approach, liquid phase edge epitaxy (LPEE), for precise-monolayer epitaxy of transition-metal dichalcogenides. In this method, the liquid solution contacts 2D grains only at the edges, which confines the epitaxy only at the grain edges and then precise monolayer epitaxy can be achieved. High-temperature in situ imaging of the epitaxy progress directly supports this edge-contact epitaxy mechanism. Typical transition-metal dichalcogenide monolayers (MX₂, M = Mo, W, and Re; X = S or Se) have been obtained by LPEE with a proper choice of molten alkali halide solvents (AL, A = Li, Na, K, and Cs; L = Cl, Br, or I). Furthermore, alloying and magnetic-element doping have also been realized by taking advantage of the liquid phase epitaxy approach. This LPEE method provides a precise and highly versatile approach for 2D monolayer epitaxy and can revolutionize the growth of 2D materials toward electronic applications.