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Abstract The technique of plasma processing is beneficial for wafer cleaning and precision etching of integrated circuits and essential in manufacture of advanced semiconductor devices with unmatched perfection. Research on two‐dimensional (2D) materials, such as transition metal dichalcogenides(TMDs), offers a promising solution to the challenges in semiconductor miniaturization. TMDs, with their atomic layer thicknesses and silicon‐like bandgaps, can be integrated using existing plasma systems. Different 2D crystal structures, such as 1T and 2H configurations, exhibit distinctive properties. Computational approaches are also developed to provide guidelines for controlled synthesis and etching of large‐scale and high‐quality 2D materials. Plasma/gas‐surface interactions during the synthesis, etching, and phase transformation of 2D materials are explored using atomistic simulations such as density functional theory and molecular dynamics. The reaction energetics, chemical species, and associated kinetics are discovered in the simulation study. These results decipher various mechanisms of 2D materials processing at the microscopic scale and predict certain optimal process parameters. Plasma/gas‐based semiconductor technologies are crucial in electronics because they enable production of advanced semiconductors. Plasma/gas etching allows precise and selective removal of material and plasma‐enhanced chemical vapor deposition enhances chemical reactions for efficient film deposition; therefore, these processes are majorly important for harnessing 2D materials in electronic applications.

In the era of big data, negative differential resistance (NDR) devices have attracted significant attention as a means of handling massive amounts of information. While 2D materials have been used to achieve NDR behavior, their intrinsic material characteristics have produced limited performance improvements. In this article, a facile phase modification method is presented via a plasma‐assisted sulfidation process to synthesize multiphased WS2 thin films, including distorted 1 T (D‐1 T) phase and 2 H phases for photoreactive NDR devices with p‐Si. The D‐1 T phase offers a feasible route to achieve high‐performance NDR devices with excellent stability and semimetallic properties. A comprehensive investigation of experimental and computational analyses elucidates the phase transition mechanism with various temperatures and electrical properties of D‐1 T WS2. In addition, optimizing electron tunneling in the multiple‐phased tungsten disulfide (MP‐WS2)/p‐Si heterojunction at MP‐WS2 with 77.4% D‐1 T phase results in superior NDR performance with a peak‐to‐valley current ratio of 13.8 and reliable photoreactive random‐access memory. This unique phase engineering process via plasma‐assisted sulfidation provides a pioneering perspective in functionalization and reliability for next‐generation nanoelectronics.

In the past decades, toxic gas emissions have increased significantly owing to the rapid growth of industry and road transportation. Therefore, monitoring major pollutants, such as NO2, is crucial to protecting human health. The 2D materials that contain numerous adsorption sites and exhibit ultrahigh chemical reactivity can be used as sensor materials to detect these toxic gases. Herein, highly uniform, large‐area carbon‐incorporating hierarchical MoS2 nanobranches are synthesized by metal–organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD). An in situ carbon‐incorporation method that uses the carbon impurity present in the precursor as the seed during the MOCVD process is employed to form a hierarchical structure containing abundant adsorption sites. A gas sensor based on the resulting C‐MoS2 nanobranches contains many edge sites exhibits high adsorption energy, and consequently, has high NO2 gas sensitivity. Hence, this hierarchical C‐MoS2 gas sensor shows excellent sensing properties, exhibiting a device response of 1.67 at an extremely low NO2 concentration (≈5 ppb). The limit of detection of the gas sensor for NO2 is calculated to be low (≈1.58 ppt), further confirming its exceptional performance. Thus, the hierarchical C‐MoS2 nanobranches deposited herein provide novel insights regarding the properties of 2D materials and are highly suited for fabricating high‐performance NO2 sensors.