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Low-temperature growth of MoS2 on polymer and thin glass substrates for flexible electronics

Nature Nanotechnology volume 18, pages 1439–1447 (2023)Cite this article

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Abstract

Recent advances in two-dimensional semiconductors, particularly molybdenum disulfide (MoS2), have enabled the fabrication of flexible electronic devices with outstanding mechanical flexibility. Previous approaches typically involved the synthesis of MoS2 on a rigid substrate at a high temperature followed by the transfer to a flexible substrate onto which the device is fabricated. A recurring drawback with this methodology is the fact that flexible substrates have a lower melting temperature than the MoS2 growth process, and that the transfer process degrades the electronic properties of MoS2. Here we report a strategy for directly synthesizing high-quality and high-crystallinity MoS2 monolayers on polymers and ultrathin glass substrates (thickness ~30 µm) at ~150 °C using metal–organic chemical vapour deposition. By avoiding the transfer process, the MoS2 quality is preserved. On flexible field-effect transistors, we achieve a mobility of 9.1 cm2 V−1 s−1 and a positive threshold voltage of +5 V, which is essential for reducing device power consumption. Moreover, under bending conditions, our logic circuits exhibit stable operation while phototransistors can detect light over a wide range of wavelengths from 405 nm to 904 nm.

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Fig. 1: Wafer-scale MoS2 synthesized on parylene C and UTG at a low temperature.
Fig. 2: Uniformity of LT-MoS2 and growth mechanism investigated using DFT.
Fig. 3: Comparison of LT-MoS2 and HT-MoS2.
Fig. 4: MoS2-based logic circuits on UTG.
Fig. 5: LT-MoS2-based phototransistor on UTG.

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Data availability

The data that support the findings of this study are available within the paper and the Supplementary Information. Other relevant data are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request. Source data are provided with this paper.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea, funded by the Korean government (NRF-2015R1A3A2066337) and the Yonsei Signature Research Cluster and Lee Youn Jae Fellow Program. K.K. and S.I. acknowledge support from the National Research Foundation of Korea (SRC programme 2017R1A5A1014862, vdWMRC).

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Author notes

  1. These authors contributed equally: Anh Tuan Hoang, Luhing Hu, Beom Jin Kim.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Yonsei University, Seoul, Republic of Korea

    Anh Tuan Hoang, Luhing Hu, Beom Jin Kim, Seunghyeon Ji, Juyeong Hong, Ajit Kumar Katiyar & Jong-Hyun Ahn

  2. Department of Chemical Engineering, Hongik University, Seoul, Republic of Korea

    Tran Thi Ngoc Van & Bonggeun Shong

  3. Institute for Rare Metals and Division of Advanced Materials Engineering, Kongju National University, Cheonan, Republic of Korea

    Kyeong Dae Park & Woon Jin Chung

  4. Van der Waals Materials Research Center, Department of Physics, Yonsei University, Seoul, Republic of Korea

    Yeonsu Jeong, Kihyun Lee, Kwanpyo Kim & Seongil Im

  5. Center for Nanomedicine, Institute for Basic Science (IBS), Seoul, Korea

    Kihyun Lee & Kwanpyo Kim

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Contributions

A.T.H., L.H., and B.J.K. contributed equally. J.-H.A. planned and supervised the project. A.T.H. synthesized and characterized MoS2 quality. L.H., B.J.K., S.J., and J.H. conducted the FET and logic circuits fabrication and characterizations. B.J.K. conducted the fabrication and characterization of phototransistors. T.T.N.V. and B.S. performed the DFT calculations. K.D.P. and W.J.C. produced the UTG substrates. Y.J. and S.I. designed and set up the system for logic circuit measurements. A.K.K. conducted low-temperature PL measurements. K.L. and K.K. performed the dark-field TEM measurements. All authors analysed the data and wrote the paper.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jong-Hyun Ahn.

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Nature Nanotechnology thanks Xidong Duan and Rong Yang for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

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Supplementary information

Supplementary Information

Supplementary Figs. 1–21, Table 1 and Video 1.

Supplementary Video 1

Stretchable differential amplifier.

Source data

Source Data Fig. 2

Optical properties of LT-MoS2; DFT calculated formation energy.

Source Data Fig. 3

Electrical properties of LT-MoS2 and HT-MoS2-based transistors.

Source Data Fig. 4

Electrical properties of LT-MoS2-based logic circuits.

Source Data Fig. 5

Electrical properties of LT-MoS2-based phototransistor.

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Hoang, A.T., Hu, L., Kim, B.J. et al. Low-temperature growth of MoS2 on polymer and thin glass substrates for flexible electronics. Nat. Nanotechnol. 18, 1439–1447 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41565-023-01460-w

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