Thickness Modulated MoS2 Grown by Chemical Vapor Deposition for Transparent and Flexible Electronic Devices

Two-dimensional (2D) materials have been a great interest as high-performance transparent and flexible electronics due to their high crystallinity in atomic thickness and their potential for variety applications in electronics and optoelectronics. The present study explored the wafer scale production of MoS2 nanosheets with layer thickness modulation from single to multi-layer by using two-step method of metal deposition and CVD process. The formation of high-quality and layer thickness-modulated MoS2 film was confirmed by Raman spectroscopy, AFM, HRTEM, and photoluminescence analysis. The layer thickness was identified by employing a simple method of optical contrast value. The image contrast in green (G) channel shows the best fit as contrast increases with layer thickness, which can be utilized in identifying the layer thickness of MoS2. The presence of critical thickness of Mo for complete sulphurization, which is due to the diffusion limit of MoS2 transformation, changes the linearity of structural, electrical, and optical properties of MoS2. High optical transparency of > 90%, electrical mobility of to ~12.24 cm² V⁻¹ s⁻¹, and I-on/off of ~10⁶ characterized within the critical thickness make the MoS2 film suitable for transparent and flexible electronics as compared to conventional amorphous silicon (a-Si) or organic films. The layer thickness modulated large scale MoS2 growth method in conjunction with the layer thickness identification by the nondestructive optical contrast will definitely trigger development of scalable 2D MoS2 films for transparent and flexible electronics.