Universal Epitaxy of Non-centrosymmetric Two-dimensional Single-crystal Metal Dichalcogenides

Overview

Journal Nat Commun

Specialty Biology

Date 2023 Feb 3

PMID 36737606

Authors

Peiming Zheng

Wenya Wei

Zhihua Liang

Biao Qin

Jinpeng Tian

Jinhuan Wang

Ruixi Qiao

Yunlong Ren

Junting Chen

Chen Huang

Xu Zhou

Guangyu Zhang

Zhilie Tang

Dapeng Yu

Feng Ding

Kaihui Liu

Xiaozhi Xu

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

The great challenge for the growth of non-centrosymmetric 2D single crystals is to break the equivalence of antiparallel grains. Even though this pursuit has been partially achieved in boron nitride and transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) growth, the key factors that determine the epitaxy of non-centrosymmetric 2D single crystals are still unclear. Here we report a universal methodology for the epitaxy of non-centrosymmetric 2D metal dichalcogenides enabled by accurate time sequence control of the simultaneous formation of grain nuclei and substrate steps. With this methodology, we have demonstrated the epitaxy of unidirectionally aligned MoS grains on a, c, m, n, r and v plane AlO as well as MgO and TiO substrates. This approach is also applicable to many TMDs, such as WS, NbS, MoSe, WSe and NbSe. This study reveals a robust mechanism for the growth of various 2D single crystals and thus paves the way for their potential applications.

Citing Articles

Hypotaxy of wafer-scale single-crystal transition metal dichalcogenides.

Moon D, Lee W, Lim C, Kim J, Kim J, Jung Y Nature. 2025; 638(8052):957-964.

PMID: 39972146 DOI: 10.1038/s41586-024-08492-9.

Recent Progress in Flexible Piezoelectric Tactile Sensors: Materials, Structures, Fabrication, and Application.

Tang J, Li Y, Yu Y, Hu Q, Du W, Lin D Sensors (Basel). 2025; 25(3).

PMID: 39943602 PMC: 11821041. DOI: 10.3390/s25030964.

Reconstruction of Gold Surface with Excessive Sulfur Source During Transition Metal Disulfide Growth.

Yin Y, Li J, Ding F Precis Chem. 2024; 2(8):414-420.

PMID: 39474151 PMC: 11504197. DOI: 10.1021/prechem.4c00018.

Growth of Noncentrosymmetric Two-Dimensional Single Crystals.

Cui G, Qi J, Liang Z, Zeng F, Zhang X, Xu X Precis Chem. 2024; 2(7):330-354.

PMID: 39473902 PMC: 11504158. DOI: 10.1021/prechem.3c00122.

Towards the scalable synthesis of two-dimensional heterostructures and superlattices beyond exfoliation and restacking.

Li J, Yang X, Zhang Z, Yang W, Duan X, Duan X Nat Mater. 2024; 23(10):1326-1338.

PMID: 39227467 DOI: 10.1038/s41563-024-01989-8.

References

Cao T, Wang G, Han W, Ye H, Zhu C, Shi J . Valley-selective circular dichroism of monolayer molybdenum disulphide. Nat Commun. 2012; 3:887. PMC: 3621397. DOI: 10.1038/ncomms1882. View

Yin J, Liu X, Lu W, Li J, Cao Y, Li Y . Aligned Growth of Hexagonal Boron Nitride Monolayer on Germanium. Small. 2015; 11(40):5375-80. DOI: 10.1002/smll.201501439. View

Uchida Y, Iwaizako T, Mizuno S, Tsuji M, Ago H . Epitaxial chemical vapour deposition growth of monolayer hexagonal boron nitride on a Cu(111)/sapphire substrate. Phys Chem Chem Phys. 2017; 19(12):8230-8235. DOI: 10.1039/c6cp08903h. View

Ma Z, Wang S, Deng Q, Hou Z, Zhou X, Li X . Epitaxial Growth of Rectangle Shape MoS with Highly Aligned Orientation on Twofold Symmetry a-Plane Sapphire. Small. 2020; 16(16):e2000596. DOI: 10.1002/smll.202000596. View

Dumcenco D, Ovchinnikov D, Marinov K, Lazic P, Gibertini M, Marzari N . Large-Area Epitaxial Monolayer MoS2. ACS Nano. 2015; 9(4):4611-20. PMC: 4415455. DOI: 10.1021/acsnano.5b01281. View

Yang P, Zhang S, Pan S, Tang B, Liang Y, Zhao X . Epitaxial Growth of Centimeter-Scale Single-Crystal MoS Monolayer on Au(111). ACS Nano. 2020; 14(4):5036-5045. DOI: 10.1021/acsnano.0c01478. View

Yu H, Liao M, Zhao W, Liu G, Zhou X, Wei Z . Wafer-Scale Growth and Transfer of Highly-Oriented Monolayer MoS Continuous Films. ACS Nano. 2017; 11(12):12001-12007. DOI: 10.1021/acsnano.7b03819. View

Lai C, Lo C, Hsieh T, Tsai W, Nguyen D, Ma Y . Ligand-Driven and Full-Color-Tunable Fiber Source: Toward Next-Generation Clinic Fiber-Endoscope Tomography with Cellular Resolution. ACS Omega. 2019; 1(4):552-565. PMC: 6640774. DOI: 10.1021/acsomega.6b00146. View

Wang Q, Li N, Tang J, Zhu J, Zhang Q, Jia Q . Wafer-Scale Highly Oriented Monolayer MoS with Large Domain Sizes. Nano Lett. 2020; 20(10):7193-7199. DOI: 10.1021/acs.nanolett.0c02531. View

10.

Tay R, Park H, Ryu G, Tan D, Tsang S, Li H . Synthesis of aligned symmetrical multifaceted monolayer hexagonal boron nitride single crystals on resolidified copper. Nanoscale. 2016; 8(4):2434-44. DOI: 10.1039/c5nr08036c. View

11.

Taslim A, Nakajima H, Lin Y, Uchida Y, Kawahara K, Okazaki T . Synthesis of sub-millimeter single-crystal grains of aligned hexagonal boron nitride on an epitaxial Ni film. Nanoscale. 2019; 11(31):14668-14675. DOI: 10.1039/c9nr03525g. View

12.

Aljarb A, Cao Z, Tang H, Huang J, Li M, Hu W . Substrate Lattice-Guided Seed Formation Controls the Orientation of 2D Transition-Metal Dichalcogenides. ACS Nano. 2017; 11(9):9215-9222. DOI: 10.1021/acsnano.7b04323. View

13.

Wang J, Xu X, Cheng T, Gu L, Qiao R, Liang Z . Dual-coupling-guided epitaxial growth of wafer-scale single-crystal WS monolayer on vicinal a-plane sapphire. Nat Nanotechnol. 2021; 17(1):33-38. DOI: 10.1038/s41565-021-01004-0. View

14.

Wang L, Xu X, Zhang L, Qiao R, Wu M, Wang Z . Epitaxial growth of a 100-square-centimetre single-crystal hexagonal boron nitride monolayer on copper. Nature. 2019; 570(7759):91-95. DOI: 10.1038/s41586-019-1226-z. View

15.

Chubarov M, Choudhury T, Reifsnyder Hickey D, Bachu S, Zhang T, Sebastian A . Wafer-Scale Epitaxial Growth of Unidirectional WS Monolayers on Sapphire. ACS Nano. 2021; 15(2):2532-2541. DOI: 10.1021/acsnano.0c06750. View

16.

Chen L, Liu B, Ge M, Ma Y, Abbas A, Zhou C . Step-Edge-Guided Nucleation and Growth of Aligned WSe2 on Sapphire via a Layer-over-Layer Growth Mode. ACS Nano. 2015; 9(8):8368-75. DOI: 10.1021/acsnano.5b03043. View

17.

Li J, Wang S, Jiang Q, Qian H, Hu S, Kang H . Single-Crystal MoS Monolayer Wafer Grown on Au (111) Film Substrates. Small. 2021; 17(30):e2100743. DOI: 10.1002/smll.202100743. View

18.

Meng J, Zhang X, Wang Y, Yin Z, Liu H, Xia J . Aligned Growth of Millimeter-Size Hexagonal Boron Nitride Single-Crystal Domains on Epitaxial Nickel Thin Film. Small. 2017; 13(18). DOI: 10.1002/smll.201604179. View

19.

Pan S, Yang P, Zhu L, Hong M, Xie C, Zhou F . Effect of substrate symmetry on the orientations of MoS monolayers. Nanotechnology. 2020; 32(9):095601. DOI: 10.1088/1361-6528/abc566. View

20.

Li S, Lin Y, Zhao W, Wu J, Wang Z, Hu Z . Vapour-liquid-solid growth of monolayer MoS nanoribbons. Nat Mater. 2018; 17(6):535-542. DOI: 10.1038/s41563-018-0055-z. View