Defect control during CVD-growth for high performance MoS₂-based self-powered photodetector

Abstract

Two-dimensional (2D) transition-metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) materials have unique band structure as well as excellent electrical and optical properties, which exhibit great advantages in optoelectronic devices. Chemical vapor deposition (CVD), a method to realize the synthesis of large-scale 2D TMDs materials, will inevitably introduce defects in the growth process, thus decreasing the performance of 2D TMDs-based optoelectronic devices. In order to fundamentally address this issue, we proposed a method to gradually regulate the reaction concentration of precursor during growth. As a result, the suitable concentration of precursor can effectively enhance the probability of covalent binding of X−M (X: S, Se, etc.; M: Mo, W, etc.), thus suppressing the generation of vacancy defects. Furthermore, we explored sulfur vacancy (V_S) on the performance of 2D molybdenum disulfide-based (MoS₂-based) self-powered devices through constructing p-type silicon/MoS₂ (p-Si/MoS₂) based p–n heterojunction. The photodetector composed of optimized MoS₂ nanosheets exhibited high responsivity (330.14 A·W⁻¹), fast response speed (40 μs/133 μs), and excellent photovoltage stability. This method of regulating the low temperature region during CVD growth can realize the preparation of high-quality TMDs films and be applied in high-performance optoelectronic devices.

Graphical abstract

Keywords

defect control / sulfur vacancy / chemical vapor deposition (CVD) / photodetector / transition-metal dichalcogenides (TMDs)

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Declarations

The authors declare no competing financial interest.

Author contributions

The manuscript was written through contributions of all authors. All authors have given approval to the final version of the manuscript.

Electronic supplementary materials

The online version contains supplementary material available at https://doi.org/10.15302/frontphys.2025.024206.

Acknowledgements

The authors immensely acknowledge the support of this work by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 62174015) and Department of Science and Technology of Jilin Province (No. YDZJ202402081CXJD).

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