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Nano Research 2018, 11(11): 6102-6109 https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-018-2128-3
Research Article | Issue | Published: 07 July 2018

Bandgap broadening at grain boundaries in single-layer MoS2

Show Author's Information Dongfei Wang1,§,  Hua Yu1,§,  Lei Tao1,§,  Wende Xiao2( ),  Peng Fan1,  Tingting Zhang1,  Mengzhou Liao1,  Wei Guo2,  Dongxia Shi1,  Shixuan Du1( ),  Guangyu Zhang1( ),  Hongjun Gao1
Institute of Physics & University of Chinese Academy of Sciences Chinese Academy of SciencesBeijing100190China
School of Physics Beijing Institute of TechnologyBeijing100081China

§Dongfei Wang, Hua Yu, and Lei Tao contributed equally to this work.

Keywords:
MoS2, grain boundary, scanning tunneling microscopy, bandgap
Cite this article:
Wang D, Yu H, Tao L, et al. Bandgap broadening at grain boundaries in single-layer MoS2. Nano Research, 2018, 11(11): 6102-6109. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-018-2128-3
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Abstract Full text Electronic supplementary material About this article

Two-dimensional semiconducting transition-metal dichalcogenides have attracted considerable interest owing to their unique physical properties and future device applications. In particular, grain boundaries (GBs) have been often observed in single-layer MoS2 grown via chemical vapor deposition, which can significantly influence the material properties. In this study, we examined the electronic structures of various GBs in single-layer MoS2 grown on highly oriented pyrolytic graphite using low-temperature scanning tunneling microscopy/spectroscopy. By measuring the local density of states of a series of GBs with tilt angles ranging from 0° to 25°, we found that the bandgaps at the GBs can be either broadened or narrowed with respect to the intrinsic single-layer MoS2. The bandgap broadening shows that the GBs can become more insulating, which may directly influence the transport properties of nanodevices based on polycrystalline single-layer MoS2 and be useful for optoelectronics.


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Electronic supplementary material
About this article

Bandgap broadening at grain boundaries in single-layer MoS2

Show Author's information Dongfei Wang1,§, Hua Yu1,§, Lei Tao1,§, Wende Xiao2( ), Peng Fan1, Tingting Zhang1, Mengzhou Liao1, Wei Guo2, Dongxia Shi1, Shixuan Du1( ), Guangyu Zhang1( ), Hongjun Gao1
Institute of Physics & University of Chinese Academy of Sciences Chinese Academy of SciencesBeijing100190China
School of Physics Beijing Institute of TechnologyBeijing100081China

§Dongfei Wang, Hua Yu, and Lei Tao contributed equally to this work.

Abstract

Two-dimensional semiconducting transition-metal dichalcogenides have attracted considerable interest owing to their unique physical properties and future device applications. In particular, grain boundaries (GBs) have been often observed in single-layer MoS2 grown via chemical vapor deposition, which can significantly influence the material properties. In this study, we examined the electronic structures of various GBs in single-layer MoS2 grown on highly oriented pyrolytic graphite using low-temperature scanning tunneling microscopy/spectroscopy. By measuring the local density of states of a series of GBs with tilt angles ranging from 0° to 25°, we found that the bandgaps at the GBs can be either broadened or narrowed with respect to the intrinsic single-layer MoS2. The bandgap broadening shows that the GBs can become more insulating, which may directly influence the transport properties of nanodevices based on polycrystalline single-layer MoS2 and be useful for optoelectronics.

Keywords: MoS2, grain boundary, scanning tunneling microscopy, bandgap

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Publication history
Copyright
Acknowledgements

Publication history

Received: 16 December 2017
Revised: 23 April 2018
Accepted: 14 June 2018
Published: 07 July 2018
Issue date: November 2018

Copyright

© Tsinghua University Press and Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2018

Acknowledgements

Acknowledgements

We thank Sokrates T. Pantelides and Min Ouyang for their constructive suggestions. Financial support from the National Key Research & Development Projects (Nos. 2016YFA0300904 and 2016YFA0202300), the National Basics Research Program (Nos. 2013CB934500 and 2013CBA01600), and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 51661135026, 61390501, 61390503, and 61325021) is gratefully acknowledged.

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