Niobium doping of CVD-WS2 monolayers using solid precursors with and without salt-KBr as a catalyst: A comparative study

Incorporating CH-groups into WS2 can tailor its opto-electronic properties, inducing p-type conduction and reducing its bandgap.

Controlled substitutional doping of two-dimensional transition-metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) is of fundamental importance for their applications in electronics and optoelectronics. However, achieving p-type conductivity in MoS2 and WS2 is challenging because of their natural tendency to form n-type vacancy defects. Here, we report versatile growth of p-type monolayer WS2 by liquid-phase mixing of a host tungsten source and niobium dopant. We show that crystallites of WS2 with different concentrations of substitutionally doped Nb up to 1014 cm-2 can be grown by reacting solution-deposited precursor film with sulfur vapor at 850 °C, reflecting the good miscibility of the precursors in the liquid phase. Atomic-resolution characterization with aberration-corrected scanning transmission electron microscopy reveals that the Nb concentration along the outer edge region of the flakes increases consistently with the molar concentration of Nb in the precursor solution. We further demonstrate that ambipolar field-effect transistors can be fabricated based on Nb-doped monolayer WS2.