Low-Temperature Chemical Vapor Deposition Growth of Monolayer MoS₂ Using a Dual-Assisted Approach

The growth of monolayer MoS₂ via chemical vapor deposition typically necessitates high temperatures over 700 °C, which presents challenges for application in the integrated circuit industry where back-end-of-line processes require temperatures possibly below 500 °C. In this study, we demonstrate a method that combines potassium chloride mixed with a MoO₃ precursor and perylene-3,4,9,10-tetracarboxylic acid tetra potassium salt as a seeding promoter for substrate pretreatment, which can effectively lower the growth temperature of MoS₂ on sapphire and SiO₂/Si substrates to 460 °C. The reduced growth temperature is achieved without compromising the material's quality, making this method potentially transformative for the semiconductor industry. Our first-principles calculations and theoretical modeling accurately describe the observed morphological evolution of monolayer MoS₂ crystals during growth. The crystal growth is governed by the probability of atom attachment to different edge types, which is determined by the varying formation energies of the nuclei at these edges. The grown monolayer MoS₂ was characterized through atomic force microscopy, Raman and photoluminescence spectroscopy, and electrical transport measurements, confirming its high quality and suitability for electronic applications.