Highly Transparent Wafer-Scale Synthesis of Crystalline WS₂ Nanoparticle Thin Film for Photodetector and Humidity-Sensing Applications

Abstract

In the present investigation, we report a one-step synthesis method of wafer-scale highly crystalline tungsten disulfide (WS2) nanoparticle thin film by using a modified hot wire chemical vapor deposition (HW-CVD) technique. The average size of WS2 nanoparticle is found to be 25-40 nm over an entire 4 in. wafer of quartz substrate. The low-angle XRD data of WS2 nanoparticle shows the highly crystalline nature of sample along with orientation (002) direction. Furthermore, Raman spectroscopy shows two prominent phonon vibration modes of E(1)2g and A1g at ∼356 and ∼420 cm(-1), respectively, indicating high purity of material. The TEM analysis shows good crystalline quality of sample. The synthesized WS2 nanoparticle thin film based device shows good response to humidity and good photosensitivity along with good long-term stability of the device. It was found that the resistance of the films decreases with increasing relative humidity (RH). The maximum humidity sensitivity of 469% along with response time of ∼12 s and recovery time of ∼13 s were observed for the WS2 thin film humidity sensor device. In the case of photodetection, the response time of ∼51 s and recovery time of ∼88 s were observed with sensitivity ∼137% under white light illumination. Our results open up several avenues to grow other transition metal dichalcogenide nanoparticle thin film for large-area nanoelectronics as well as industrial applications.