The instability of van der Waals (vdW) materials leads to spontaneous morphological and chemical transformations in the air. Although the passivation of vdW materials with other resistive materials is often used to solve stability issues, this passivation layer can block carrier injection and thus interfere with charge transfer doping. In this study, a facile method is proposed for n-doping and mediation of Se vacancies in tungsten diselenide (WSe2) by poly(vinylpyrrolidone) (PVP) coating. The major carrier type of the PVP-coated WSe2-based field-effect transistor (FET) was converted from hole (p-type) to electron (n-type). Furthermore, the vacancy-induced interface trap density was reduced by approximately 500 times. This study provides a practical doping and passivation method for the van der Waals materials, as well as a comprehensive understanding of the chemical reaction and electronic transport in these materials.
Keywords: electron doping; interface trap; n-doping; poly(vinylpyrrolidone); transition-metal dichalcogenides.