Nucleation and coalescence of tungsten disulfide layers grown by metalorganic chemical vapor deposition.

• Lateral growth of nucleated WS 2 domains on C-plane sapphire by MOCVD in a commercial showerhead reactor was demonstrated. • The crystalline quality of coalesced WS 2 monolayers with <10% bilayer was assessed by GIXRD and 4D-STEM. • Electrical properties of the WS 2 layers were determined using backgated TLM structures demostrating I on /I off > 108 and electron mobility of 5 cm2/Vs. • Impact of the change of offcut direction of sapphire, substrate annealing temperature and WS 2 growth temperature was investigated. The nucleation of tungsten disulfide WS 2 crystallites and coalescence behaviour of monolayer WS 2 films grown on C-plane sapphire have been studied in a commercial AIXTRON close coupled showerhead metalorganic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) reactor using tungsten hexacarbonyl and di- tert -butyl sulfide as precursors. The influence of sapphire substrates offcut (both orientation and angle), as well as the substrate annealing conditions and growth temperature, on the nucleation and size of the WS 2 domains has been investigated. A higher nucleation temperature combined with increased substrate annealing temperatures was found to promote an increase in the WS 2 domain size. The dependence of surface coverage and coalescence behaviour of the WS 2 domains on the growth duration has also been determined, allowing monolayer WS 2 films with < 10 % bilayer to be obtained. Crystalline quality of the coalesced WS 2 films has been assessed by grazing incidence XRD and misorientation mapping using 4D-scanning transmission electron microscopy, showing a slight in-plane misorientation of the crystallites in the WS 2 monolayer. The electrical performance of the coalesced WS 2 films was assessed using backgated TLM structures demonstrating mobility values of up to 5 cm2/Vs and a high I on /I off ratio greater than 108. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]