Growth parameter enhancement for MoS2 thin films synthesized by pulsed laser deposition.

Two-dimensional materials such as graphene and MoS2 have been the main focus of intense research efforts over the past few years. The most common method of exfoliating these materials, although efficient for lab-scale experiments, is not acceptable for large area and practical applications. Here, we report the deposition of MoS2 layered films on amorphous (SiO2) and crystalline substrates (sapphire) using a pulsed laser deposition (PLD) method. Increased substrate temperature (∼700 °C) and laser energy density (>530 mJ /cm2) promotes crystalline MoS2 films < 20 nm, as demonstrated by fast Fourier transform (FFT) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The method reported here opens the possibility for large area layered MoS2 films by using a laser ablation processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]