Vapour–liquid–solid growth of monolayer MoS2 nanoribbons

• Published in: Nature materials Vol. 17; no. 6; pp. 535 - 542
• Main Authors: Li, Shisheng, Lin, Yung-Chang, Zhao, Wen, Wu, Jing, Wang, Zhuo, Hu, Zehua, Shen, Youde, Tang, Dai-Ming, Wang, Junyong, Zhang, Qi, Zhu, Hai, Chu, Leiqiang, Zhao, Weijie, Liu, Chang, Sun, Zhipei, Taniguchi, Takaaki, Osada, Minoru, Chen, Wei, Xu, Qing-Hua, Wee, Andrew Thye Shen, Suenaga, Kazu, Ding, Feng, Eda, Goki
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 01.06.2018; Nature Publishing Group
• Subjects: 140/125; 140/133; 639/301; 639/301/357/1018; 639/638; 639/925; 639/925/357/1018; Biomaterials; Chemical vapor deposition; Chemistry and Materials Science; Condensed Matter Physics; Droplets; Materials Science; Molybdenum disulfide; Molybdenum oxides; Molybdenum trioxide; Monolayers; Nanoelectronics; Nanoribbons; Nanotechnology; Nanotechnology devices; Optical and Electronic Materials; Scanning electron microscopy; Scanning transmission electron microscopy; Second harmonic generation; Sodium chloride; Sulfur; Transmission electron microscopy
• ISSN: 1476-1122; 1476-4660; 1476-4660
• DOI: 10.1038/s41563-018-0055-z

Chemical vapour deposition of two-dimensional materials typically involves the conversion of vapour precursors to solid products in a vapour–solid–solid mode. Here, we report the vapour–liquid–solid growth of monolayer MoS 2 , yielding highly crystalline ribbons with a width of few tens to thousands of nanometres. This vapour–liquid–solid growth is triggered by the reaction between MoO 3 and NaCl, which results in the formation of molten Na–Mo–O droplets. These droplets mediate the growth of MoS 2 ribbons in the ‘crawling mode’ when saturated with sulfur. The locally well-defined orientations of the ribbons reveal the regular horizontal motion of the droplets during growth. Using atomic-resolution scanning transmission electron microscopy and second harmonic generation microscopy, we show that the ribbons are grown homoepitaxially on monolayer MoS 2 with predominantly 2H- or 3R-type stacking. Our findings highlight the prospects for the controlled growth of atomically thin nanostructure arrays for nanoelectronic devices and the development of unique mixed-dimensional structures. Monolayer MoS 2 can be laterally grown in the vapour–liquid–solid mode, forming highly crystalline nano- and microribbon structures.