Dielectric-Induced Charge Doping in Monolayer MoS2
Abstract Unintentional doping from dielectrics can impact the electronic properties of two-dimensional transition metal dichalcogenide (2D TMD) semiconductors. Our recent work shows that high-dielectric-constant (k) ZrO2 is an electrostatically inert dielectric for 2D MoS2, supported by X-ray spectroscopy (XPS) and electrical measurements. Here, we expand this work through gate-controlled photoluminescence (PL) of monolayer MoS2 placed on different substrates. MoS2 on ZrO2 exhibits a low carrier concentration, indicated by a small trion-to-exciton ratio (X–/X0) of 0.5, similar to those on high-quality hBN. At a high electrostatic doping of ∼1013 cm–2, MoS2 on high-k ZrO2 reveals a slight exponential dependence of X–/X0 versus carrier concentration, while MoS2 on SiO2 shows strong exponential characteristics even at low gating (1012 cm–2) due to substantial electron doping from substrate-induced disorder tail states. Our findings provide insights into the doping mechanisms in industry-compatible amorphous dielectrics and evaluate their potential for scalable optoelectronic devices.
Authors
- Kamal Kumar Paul (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4119-0379)
- Takashi Taniguchi (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1467-3105)
- Kenji Watanabe (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3701-8119)
- Leyi Loh (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6315-7545)
- Manish Chhowalla (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8183-4044)
- Mauro Brotons‐Gisbert (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7254-8292)
- Deepnarayan Biswas (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4590-7944)
- Lixin Liu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6550-5726)
- Han Yan (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0008-3376-1697)
- Esther Lilian Gray (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5738-738X)
- Tien-Lin Lee
- Yuan Chen
- Han Yan
Institutions
- National Institute for Materials Science (JP)
- University of Cambridge (GB)
- Diamond Light Source (GB)
- Heriot-Watt University Malaysia (MY)
- The Faraday Institution (GB)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Nano Letters
- Published
- 2026-08-20
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.nanolett.6c03443
- Primary Topic
- 2D Materials and Applications
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00
Funders
- Faraday Institution
- Royal Academy of Engineering
- Royal Society
- Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology
- Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council
- European Research Council
- Japan Society for the Promotion of Science
- Core Research for Evolutional Science and Technology
- HORIZON EUROPE Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions