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Nano Research 2019, 12(4): 947-954 https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-019-2329-4
Research Article | Issue | Published: 08 March 2019

Direct observation of epitaxial alignment of Au on MoS2 at atomic resolution

Show Author's Information Yinghui Sun1,  Haofei Zhao1,  Dan Zhou2,  Yuchen Zhu1,  Huanyu Ye1,  Yan Aung Moe1,  Rongming Wang1( )
Beijing Advanced Innovation Center for Materials Genome Engineering,Beijing Key Laboratory for Magneto-Photoelectrical Composite and Interface Science, School of Mathematics and Physics, University of Science and Technology Beijing,Beijing,100083,China;
Stuttgart Center for Electron Microscopy,Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research,Stuttgart,70569,Germany;
Keywords:
MoS2, atom migration, in situ transmission electron microscopy (TEM), metal-semiconductor interface, Moirépatterns
Topics:
Gold nanoparticlesLayered semiconductorsMolybdenum compoundsNanoparticlesSemiconductor devices
Cite this article:
Sun Y, Zhao H, Zhou D, et al. Direct observation of epitaxial alignment of Au on MoS2 at atomic resolution. Nano Research, 2019, 12(4): 947-954. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-019-2329-4
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Abstract Full text Electronic supplementary material About this article

The morphology and structural stability of metal/2D semiconductor interfaces strongly affect the performance of 2D electronic devices and synergistic catalysis. However, the structural evolution at the interfaces has not been well explored particularly at atomic resolution. In this work, we study the structural evolution of Au nanoparticles (NPs) on few-layer MoS2 by high resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) and quantitative high-angle annular dark field scanning TEM. It is found that in the transition of Au from nanoparticles to dendrites, a dynamically epitaxial alignment between Au and MoS2 lattices is formed, and Moiré patterns can be directly observed in HRTEM images due to the mismatch between Au and MoS2 lattices. This epitaxial alignment can occur in ambient conditions, and can also be accelerated by the irradiation of high-energy electron beam. In situ observation clearly reveals the rotation of Au NPs, the atom migration inside Au NPs, and the transfer of Au atoms between neighboring Au NPs, finally leading to the formation of epitaxially aligned Au dendrites on MoS2. The structural evolution of metal/2D semiconductor interfaces at atomic scale can provide valuable information for the design and fabrication of the metal/2D semiconductor nano-devices with desired physical and chemical performances.


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Electronic supplementary material
About this article

Direct observation of epitaxial alignment of Au on MoS2 at atomic resolution

Show Author's information Yinghui Sun1, Haofei Zhao1, Dan Zhou2, Yuchen Zhu1, Huanyu Ye1, Yan Aung Moe1, Rongming Wang1( )
Beijing Advanced Innovation Center for Materials Genome Engineering,Beijing Key Laboratory for Magneto-Photoelectrical Composite and Interface Science, School of Mathematics and Physics, University of Science and Technology Beijing,Beijing,100083,China;
Stuttgart Center for Electron Microscopy,Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research,Stuttgart,70569,Germany;

Abstract

The morphology and structural stability of metal/2D semiconductor interfaces strongly affect the performance of 2D electronic devices and synergistic catalysis. However, the structural evolution at the interfaces has not been well explored particularly at atomic resolution. In this work, we study the structural evolution of Au nanoparticles (NPs) on few-layer MoS2 by high resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) and quantitative high-angle annular dark field scanning TEM. It is found that in the transition of Au from nanoparticles to dendrites, a dynamically epitaxial alignment between Au and MoS2 lattices is formed, and Moiré patterns can be directly observed in HRTEM images due to the mismatch between Au and MoS2 lattices. This epitaxial alignment can occur in ambient conditions, and can also be accelerated by the irradiation of high-energy electron beam. In situ observation clearly reveals the rotation of Au NPs, the atom migration inside Au NPs, and the transfer of Au atoms between neighboring Au NPs, finally leading to the formation of epitaxially aligned Au dendrites on MoS2. The structural evolution of metal/2D semiconductor interfaces at atomic scale can provide valuable information for the design and fabrication of the metal/2D semiconductor nano-devices with desired physical and chemical performances.

Keywords: MoS2, atom migration, in situ transmission electron microscopy (TEM), metal-semiconductor interface, Moirépatterns

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Publication history
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Acknowledgements

Publication history

Received: 04 December 2018
Revised: 25 January 2019
Accepted: 04 February 2019
Published: 08 March 2019
Issue date: April 2019

Copyright

© Tsinghua University Press and Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2019

Acknowledgements

Acknowledgements

The authors thank Fangtao Li, Hongsheng Fan, and Sibin Duan for helpful discussions. This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 11604010 and 11674023), 111 Project (No. B170003), and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (No. FRF-BD-18-004A).

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