Toward Low-Temperature Solid-Source Synthesis of Monolayer MoS₂

Abstract

Two-dimensional (2D) semiconductors have been proposed for heterogeneous integration with existing silicon technology; however, their chemical vapor deposition (CVD) growth temperatures are often too high. Here, we demonstrate direct CVD solid-source precursor synthesis of continuous monolayer (1L) MoS₂ films at 560 °C in 50 min, within the 450-to-600 °C, 2 h thermal budget window required for back-end-of-the-line compatibility with modern silicon technology. Transistor measurements reveal on-state current up to ∼140 μA/μm at 1 V drain-to-source voltage for 100 nm channel lengths, the highest reported to date for 1L MoS₂ grown below 600 °C using solid-source precursors. The effective mobility from transfer length method test structures is 29 ± 5 cm² V^-1 s^-1 at 6.1 × 10¹² cm^-2 electron density, which is comparable to mobilities reported from films grown at higher temperatures. The results of this work provide a path toward the realization of high-quality, thermal-budget-compatible 2D semiconductors for heterogeneous integration with silicon manufacturing.