Duan Xidong and Duan Xiangfeng
College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Hunan University, China
University of California, USA
Scientific Tracks Abstracts: J Material Sci Eng
Two-dimensional layered materials such as garphene, MoS2 and WSe2 have attracted considerable interest in
recent times as semiconductor after Si and becoming an important material platform in condensed matter
physics and modern electronics and optoelectronics. The studies to date however generally rely on mechanically
exfoliated flakes which always be limtited to simple 2D materals, especially 2D lateral complicated structure can
not be perpared through exfoliation strategy. Much like the traditional semiconductor technique, complicated
structure such as controlling the space distribution of composition and electronic structure of two dimensional
semiconductor material is essential to construct all modern electronic and optoelectronic devices, including
transistors, pâ??n diodes, photovoltaic/photodetection devices, light-emitting diodes and laser diodes. And many
physics phenomenon can only appear in more complicated structure. To fully explore the potential of this new class
of materials, it is necessary to develop rational synthetic strategies of two dimensional lateral complicated struture,
such as lateral heterostructure, multiheterostructure, superlattice, quantum well etc., With a relatively small lattice
mismatch (~4%) between MoS2 and MoSe2 or WS2 and WSe2, it is possible to produce coherent MoS2â??MoSe2 and
WS2â??WSe2 heterostructures through a lateral epitaxial process (Fig. 1a). Our studies indicate that simple sequential
growth often fails to produce the desired heterostructures because the edge growth front can be easily passivated
after termination of the first growth and exposure to ambient conditions. To retain a fresh, unpassivated edge growth
front is important for successive lateral epitaxial growth. To this end, we have designed a thermal CVD process
that allows in situ switching of the vapour-phase reactants to enable lateral epitaxial growth of single- or few-layer
TMD lateral heterostructures. We used this technique to realize the growth of compositionally modulated MoS2â??
MoSe2 and WS2â??WSe2 lateral heterostructures. From the Fig. 1 b,c,d,e we can see the formation of WS2â??WSe2 lateral
heterostructures clearly. The WS2â??WSe2 lateral heterostuctures with both p- and n-type characteristics can also
allow us to construct many other functional devices, for example, a CMOS inverter. Fig. 1g is the optical image of the
invert constructed using the WS2â??WSe2 lateral heterostuctures and the curves of the outputâ??input and the voltage
gain. The voltage gain reaches as large as 24.
In a typical sequential-growth process for 2D lateral heterostructure, the excessive thermal degradation or
uncontrolled nucleation duringthe temperature swing between sequential growthsteps represents the key obstacle to
reliable formation of monolayer heterostructure or other lateral complicated structure .We designed a modified CVD
system.We used a reverse flow from the substrate to the source during the temperature swing between successive
growth steps A forward flow from the chemical vapor sourcewas only applied at the exact growth temperature.
With such reverse flow, the existing monolayer materials will not exposure to high temperature and chemical
vapor source at the tempreture increasing and decreasing steps to minimize thermal degradation and eliminate
uncontrolled homogeneous nucleation. With a high degree of controllability in each step, the integrity and quality
of monolayer heterostructures can be well preserved after multiple sequential growth steps. We used our approach
initially for the general synthesis of a wide range of 2D crystal heterostructures. We also grew more complex
compositionally modulated superlattices or multiheterostructures, the number of periods and repeated spacing can
be readily varied during growth. HADDF-STEM analysis of the atomic structure of the lateral heterostructures and
Multiheterostructures show the atomically sharp interface can be clearly observed.
Recent Publications
1. Xidong Duan, Anlian Pan,Ruqin Yu, Xiangfeng Duan,et,al, Nature Nanotechnology 9,2014,1024-1030.
2. Zhengwei Zhang,Xidong Duan, Xiangfeng Duan,et al, Science, 357, 2017,788â??792.
Xidong Duan is a Professor at the College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Hunan University, China. His current research interests include twodimensional materials, heterostructures and their applications. He received his BS degree in Chemistry from Hunan University in 1993, his MA degree in Materials from Hunan University in 1996, and his degree in Chemistry from Hunan University in 2016. He was previously a senior engineer at the Changsha Research Institute of Mining and Metallurgy before joining Hunan University.
Journal of Material Sciences & Engineering received 3677 citations as per Google Scholar report