Large-Scale Production of 2D Transition Metal Dichalcogenides

Silicon has been the dominant material in the semiconductor industry for decades. However, with silicon transistors reaching their physical limit, it is important to research other materials to realize faster and smaller devices. Two dimensional (2D) materials are one possibility. In particular, single-layer transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) are a type of 2D material that have been shown to be fantastic candidates for semiconductor devices. TMDs have already been displayed in many devices with excellent performance. The major problem that remains in this field is obtaining monolayer samples at a large scale (>100 μm). One solution to this engineering problem is molecular beam epitaxy. Molecular beam epitaxy is a vapor deposition technique that has been known to produce films of exceptionally high purity. Using this technique, our group plans to grow TMD monolayers such as WSe2 that can be used for high performance devices while also being more applicable for industry.