Heteroepitaxial Growth of High Optical Quality, Wafer-Scale van der Waals Heterostrucutres

Transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) are materials that can exhibit intriguing optical properties like a change of the bandgap from indirect to direct when being thinned down to a monolayer. Well-resolved narrow excitonic resonances can be observed for such monolayers although only for materials of sufficient crystalline quality and so far mostly available in the form of micrometer-sized flakes. A further significant improvement of optical and electrical properties can be achieved by transferring the TMD on hexagonal boron nitride (hBN). To exploit the full potential of TMDs in future applications, epitaxial techniques have to be developed that not only allow the growth of large-scale, high-quality TMD monolayers but also allow the growth to be performed directly on large-scale epitaxial hBN. In this work, we address this problem and demonstrate that MoSe2 of high optical quality can be directly grown on epitaxial hBN on an entire 2 in. wafer. We developed a combined growth theme for which hBN is first synthesized at high temperature by metal organic vapor phase epitaxy (MOVPE) and as a second step MoSe2 is deposited on top by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) at much lower temperatures. We show that this structure exhibits excellent optical properties, manifested by narrow excitonic lines in the photoluminescence spectra. Moreover, the material is homogeneous on the area of the whole 2 in. wafer with only +/- 0.14 meV deviation of excitonic energy. Our mixed growth technique may guide the way for future large-scale production of high quality TMD/hBN heterostructures.

Automated summary

Transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) are materials with intriguing optical properties, especially when thinned down to a monolayer. By transferring TMD onto hexagonal boron nitride (hBN), significant improvements in optical and electrical properties can be achieved. A new epitaxial technique has been developed to directly grow high optical quality MoSe2 on an entire 2-inch wafer.