Epitaxy growth of centimeter-sized p-type monolayer molybdenum disulfide single crystals with high hole mobility

Epitaxy growth and accurate doping of wafer-scale two-dimensional (2D) semiconductor single crystals are two crucial issues to break the scaling limitation of transistors. Despite remarkable progresses have been realized in preparing large-area 2D n-type semiconductor single crystals, the epitaxy growth of wafer-scale p-type semiconductor single crystals have yet to be realized. Here an in-situ hole doping strategy is proposed to control the domain orientation and modulate the electronic property of monolayer MoS₂, which enable the achievement of centimeter-sized p-type semiconductor single crystals. The introduction of hole dopants (e.g., V₂O₅, NH₄VO₃, and VCl₃) contributes to the parallel steps formation on sapphire surfaces to induce the unidirectional monolayer MoS₂ domains nucleation. Meanwhile, the electronic property of monolayer MoS₂ is also changed from n-type semiconducting to p-type. Benefiting from the different doping abilities of V₂O₅, NH₄VO₃, and VCl₃, the V doping concentrations can be regulated within a large range from 0.36 to 12.60 at%, which delivers an excellent hole mobility (17.6 cm²·V^−1·s^−1). This work provides a new avenue for synthesizing wafer-scale 2D p-type semiconductor single crystals, which will enrich the device functions and extend Moore’s law.