Exclusive Generation of Single-Atom Sulfur for Ultrahigh Quality Monolayer MoS$_2$ Growth

Yunhao Zhang; Jingwei Wang; Yumo Chen; Xian Wu; Junyang Tan; Jiarong Liu; Huiyu Nong; Liqiong He; Qinke Wu; Guangmin Zhou; Xiaolong Zou; Bilu Liu

arXiv · 2502.02926

Exclusive Generation of Single-Atom Sulfur for Ultrahigh Quality Monolayer MoS$_2$ Growth

Yunhao Zhang·Jingwei Wang·Yumo Chen·Xian Wu·Junyang Tan·Jiarong Liu·Huiyu Nong·Liqiong He·Qinke Wu·Guangmin Zhou·Xiaolong Zou·Bilu Liu

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Abstract

Preparation of high-quality two-dimensional (2D) transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDCs) is the precondition for realizing their applications. However, the synthesized 2D TMDCs (e.g., MoS$_2$) crystals suffer from low quality due to the massive defects formed during the growth. Here, we report the single-atom sulfur (S1) as a highly reactive sulfur species to grow ultrahigh-quality monolayer MoS$_2$. Derived from battery waste, the sulfurized polyacrylonitrile (SPAN) is found to be exclusive and efficient in releasing S1. The monolayer MoS$_2$ prepared by SPAN exhibits an ultralow defect density of $~7\times 10^{12}$ cm$^{-2}$ and the narrowest photoluminescence (PL) emission peak with full-width at half-maximum of ~47.11 meV at room temperature. Moreover, the statistical resonance Raman and low-temperature PL results further verify the significantly lower defect density and higher optical quality of SPAN-grown MoS$_2$ than the conventional S-powder-grown samples. This work provides an effective approach for preparing ultrahigh-quality 2D single crystals, facilitating their industrial applications.

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Yunhao Zhang, Jingwei Wang, Yumo Chen, Xian Wu, Junyang Tan, Jiarong Liu, Huiyu Nong, Liqiong He, Qinke Wu, Guangmin Zhou, Xiaolong Zou, Bilu Liu. 2025-02-05. Exclusive Generation of Single-Atom Sulfur for Ultrahigh Quality Monolayer MoS$_2$ Growth. https://arxiv.org/abs/2502.02926

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