Large-scale alkali-assisted growth of monolayer and bilayer WSe2 with a low defect density
Sui-An Chou, Chen Chang, Bo-Hong Wu, Chih-Piao Chuu, Pai-Chia Kuo, Liang-Hsuan Pan, Kai-Chun Huang, Man-Hong Lai, Yi-Feng Chen, Che-Lun Lee, Hao-Yu Chen, Jessie Shiue, Yu-Ming Chang, Ming-Yang Li, Ya-Ping Chiu, Chun-Wei Chen & Po-Hsun Ho
Nature Communications, 16, 2777 (2025)
The development of p-type WSe2 transistors has lagged behind n-type MoS2 because of challenges in growing high-quality, large-area WSe2 films. This study employs an alkali-assisted CVD (AACVD) method by using KOH to enhance nucleation on sapphire substrates, effectively promoting monolayer growth on c-plane sapphire and enabling controlled bilayer seeding on miscut surfaces with artificial steps. With AACVD, we achieve 2-inch monolayer and centimeter-scale bilayer WSe2 films with defect densities as low as 1.6 × 1012 cm−2 (monolayer) and 1.8 × 1012 cm−2 (bilayer), comparable to exfoliated WSe2. Bilayer WSe2 transistors exhibit hole/electron mobilities of 119/34 cm²/Vs, while monolayers achieve 105/22 cm²/Vs with suitable metal contacts. Additionally, bilayer WSe2 demonstrates lower contact resistance for both n-type and p-type transistors, making it highly promising for future high-performance electronic applications.
Institute of Atomic and Molecular Sciences Academia Sinica
