High-throughput synthesis and evaluation of metal and metal oxide precursor films for two-step conversion to MoSe2
Abstract Two-step conversion is a promising approach to produce high-quality films of two-dimensional (2D) transition metal dichalcogenides (TMD) from thin metal films. However, the influence of the intermediate metal oxide properties such as oxidation state, stoichiometry, structure, orientation, crystallinity, grain size, and defect density, on the resulting TMD properties have not been well-studied, in part because of the large processing parameter space. Herein, we studied the influence of laser annealing power and scan speed on the structure and chemistry of the metal and metal oxide films, and by extension, on the resulting TMD film. High-throughput processing of a 10 × 11 array on Mo thin films spanning the two processing parameters, complemented with diffraction, Raman, XPS, and ellipsometric mapping allowed us to efficiently optimize the synthesis of MoSe 2 . Amorphous, sub-stoichiometric (MoO 2 ) resulted in the best in-plane (002) aligned MoSe 2 films, which exhibited the highest refractive index >5, comparable to that observed in mechanically exfoliated material and films synthesized through molecular beam epitaxy.
Authors
- Brian M. Everhart (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6808-0471)
- Michael Snure (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0006-1521-6551)
- Peter R. Stevenson (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3731-1630)
- Nicholas R. Glavin (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9447-7509)
- Benjamin Robertson
- Arthur R. Woll
- Kurt G. Eyink (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8503-620X)
- Lee Josephson (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7230-7015)
- Mark Anayee (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6691-920X)
- Drake Austin (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0178-3791)
- M. D. Simmons (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7598-7266)
- Chris Muratore
- Mike A. Altvater
- Matthew Kleyn
Institutions
- University of Dayton (US)
- United States Air Force Research Laboratory (US)
- Cornell University (US)
- Wright-Patterson Air Force Base (US)
- Dayton Clinical Oncology Program (US)
- Western Energy Support & Technology (United States) (US)
- National Research Council (RO)
- National Health Council (US)
- Materials Resources (United States) (US)
Publication Details
- Journal
- npj 2D Materials and Applications
- Published
- 2025-07-12
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1038/s41699-025-00580-2
- Citations
- 4
- Primary Topic
- 2D Materials and Applications
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 2.07
Funders
- National Research Council
- Air Force Office of Scientific Research
- Air Force Research Laboratory
- Materials and Manufacturing Directorate