Controllable substitutional vanadium doping in wafer-scale molybdenum disulfide films

Substitutional atomic doping of transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) in the chemical vapor deposition (CVD) process is a promising and effective strategy for modifying their physicochemical properties. However, the conventional CVD method only allows narrow-range modulation of the dopant concentration owing to the low reactivity of the precursors. Moreover, the growth of wafer-scale monolayer TMD films with high dopant concentrations is much more challenging. Herein, we report a facile doping approach based on liquid precursor-mediated CVD process for achieving high vanadium (V) doping in the MoS₂ lattice with excellent doping uniformity and stability. The lateral growth of the host MoS₂ lattice and the reactivity of the V precursor were simultaneously improved by introducing an alkali metal halide as a reaction promoter. The metal halide promoter enabled the wafer-scale synthesis of V-incorporated MoS₂ monolayer film with excessively high doping concentrations. The excellent wafer-scale uniformity of the highly V-doped MoS₂ film was confirmed through a series of microscopic, spectroscopic, and electrical analyses.