CVD growth of large-area monolayer WS2 film on sapphire through tuning substrate environment and its application for high-sensitive strain sensor

Weihuang Yang; Yuanbin Mu; Xiangshuo Chen; Ningjing Jin; Jiahao Song; Jiajun Chen; Linxi Dong; Chaoran Liu; Weipeng Xuan; Changjie Zhou; Chunxiao Cong; Jingzhi Shang; Silin He; Gaofeng Wang; Jing Li

doi:10.1186/s11671-023-03782-z

CVD growth of large-area monolayer WS₂ film on sapphire through tuning substrate environment and its application for high-sensitive strain sensor

Discov Nano. 2023 Feb 16;18(1):13. doi: 10.1186/s11671-023-03782-z.

Authors

Weihuang Yang¹, Yuanbin Mu², Xiangshuo Chen², Ningjing Jin², Jiahao Song², Jiajun Chen³, Linxi Dong⁴, Chaoran Liu², Weipeng Xuan², Changjie Zhou⁵, Chunxiao Cong^{6

7}, Jingzhi Shang⁸, Silin He⁸, Gaofeng Wang², Jing Li⁹

Affiliations

¹ Engineering Research Center of Smart Microsensors and Microsystems, Ministry of Education, College of Electronics and Information, Hangzhou Dianzi University, Hangzhou, 310018, China. yangwh@hdu.edu.cn.
² Engineering Research Center of Smart Microsensors and Microsystems, Ministry of Education, College of Electronics and Information, Hangzhou Dianzi University, Hangzhou, 310018, China.
³ State Key Laboratory of ASIC and System, School of Information Science and Technology, Fudan University, Shanghai, 200433, China.
⁴ Engineering Research Center of Smart Microsensors and Microsystems, Ministry of Education, College of Electronics and Information, Hangzhou Dianzi University, Hangzhou, 310018, China. donglinxi@hdu.edu.cn.
⁵ Department of Physics, School of Science, Jimei University, Xiamen, 361021, China. zhoucj@jmu.edu.cn.
⁶ State Key Laboratory of ASIC and System, School of Information Science and Technology, Fudan University, Shanghai, 200433, China. cxcong@fudan.edu.cn.
⁷ High Tech Center for New Materials, Novel Devices and Cutting Edge Manufacturing, Yiwu Research Institute of Fudan University, Chengbei Road, Yiwu City, 322000, Zhejiang, China. cxcong@fudan.edu.cn.
⁸ Institute of Flexible Electronics (IFE), Northwestern Polytechnical University (NPU), 1 Dongxiang Road, Chang'an District, Xi'an, 710129, China.
⁹ Collaborative Innovation Center for Optoelectronic Semiconductors and Efficient Devices, Pen-Tung Sah Institute of Micro-Nano Science and Technology, Xiamen, 361005, China.

Abstract

Large-area, continuous monolayer WS₂ exhibits great potential for future micro-nanodevice applications due to its special electrical properties and mechanical flexibility. In this work, the front opening quartz boat is used to increase the amount of sulfur (S) vapor under the sapphire substrate, which is critical for achieving large-area films during the chemical vapor deposition processes. COMSOL simulations reveal that the front opening quartz boat will significantly introduce gas distribute under the sapphire substrate. Moreover, the gas velocity and height of substrate away from the tube bottom will also affect the substrate temperature. By carefully optimizing the gas velocity, temperature, and height of substrate away from the tube bottom, a large-scale continues monolayered WS₂ film was achieved. Field-effect transistor based on the as-grown monolayer WS₂ showed a mobility of 3.76 cm²V^-1 s^-1 and ON/OFF ratio of 10⁶. In addition, a flexible WS₂/PEN strain sensor with a gauge factor of 306 was fabricated, showing great potential for applications in wearable biosensors, health monitoring, and human-computer interaction.

Keywords: 2D materials; COMSOL; CVD; Strain sensor; WS2.

Abstract

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