Kinetic acceleration of MoS₂ growth by oxy-metal-organic chemical vapor deposition.

Kinetics determine the growth behavior of thin films, particularly for atomically thin transition-metal dichalcogenides. Metal-organic (MO) chemical vapor deposition (CVD) offers promise for scalable growth, but the reactions are kinetically limited, leading to nanometer-scale domain size and carbon contaminations. Here, we unveil the fundamental kinetic limitations and overcome them by introducing oxygen-assisted MOCVD (oxy-MOCVD) technology. By tuning reactions with oxygen, MO precursors are converted into high-purity transition-metal oxides and chalcogens, producing aligned molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) domains with a size and growth rate that are orders of magnitude larger than conventional MOCVD. The MoS2 is free of carbon impurities and exhibits average mobility exceeding 100 square centimeters per volt per second. The scalability of oxy-MOCVD is demonstrated by 150-millimeter single-crystal MoS2 wafers, proving the feasibility of industrial-scale production. Editor's summary: Adding oxygen to the mixture of precursors in metal-organic chemical vapor deposition has been shown to accelerate the growth of molybdenum disulfide. Liu et al. converted the precursors into high-purity transition-metal oxides and chalcogens, which boosted growth rates and domain sizes by orders of magnitude and prevented carbon contamination. Growth on 15-centimeter miscut sapphire substrates created well-aligned domains and films with average mobilities exceeding 100 square centimeters per volt per second. —Phil Szuromi [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]