Electrical transport properties of polycrystalline monolayer molybdenum disulfide

Semiconducting MoS2 monolayers have shown many promising electrical properties, and the inevitable polycrystallinity in synthetic, large-area films renders understanding the effect of structural defects, such as grain boundaries (GBs, or line-defects in two-dimensional materials), essential. In this work, we first examine the role of GBs in the electrical-transport properties of MoS2 monolayers with varying line-defect densities. We reveal a systematic degradation of electrical characteristics as the line-defect density increases. The two common MoS2 GB types and their specific roles are further examined, and we find that only tilt GBs have a considerable effect on the MoS2 electrical properties. By examining the electronic states and sources of disorder using temperature-dependent transport studies, we adopt the Anderson model for disordered systems to explain the observed transport behaviors in different temperature regimes. Our results elucidate the roles played by GBs in different scenarios and give insights into their underlying scattering mechanisms.