Iodine-assisted ultrafast growth of high-quality monolayer MoS_(2) with sulfur-terminated edges

Two-dimensional(2D)semiconductors have attracted great attention to extend Moore’s law,which motivates the quest for fast growth of high-quality materials.However,taking MoS_(2) as an example,current methods yield 2D MoS_(2) with a low growth rate and poor quality with vacancy concentrations three to five orders of magnitude higher than silicon and other commercial semiconductors.Here,we develop a strategy of using an intermediate product of iodine as a transport agent to carry metal precursors efficiently for ultrafast growth of high-quality MoS_(2).The grown MoS_(2) has the lowest density of sulfur vacancies(~1.41×10^(12) cm^(−2))reported so far and excellent electrical properties with high on/off current ratios of 108 and carrier mobility of 175 cm^(2) V^(−1) s^(−1).Theoretical calculations show that by incorporating iodine,the nucleation barrier of MoS_(2) growth with sulfur-terminated edges reduces dramatically.The sufficient supply of precursor and low nucleation energy together boost the ultrafast growth of sub-millimeter MoS_(2) domains within seconds.This work provides an effective method for the ultrafast growth of 2D semiconductors with high quality,which will promote their applications.