Selective Pattern Growth of Atomically Thin MoSe₂ Films via a Surface-Mediated Liquid-Phase Promoter

Two-dimensional transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) offer numerous advantages over silicon-based application in terms of atomically thin geometry, excellent opto-electrical properties, layer-number dependence, band gap variability, and lack of dangling bonds. The production of high-quality and large-scale TMD films is required with consideration of practical technology. However, the performance of scalable devices is affected by problems such as contamination and patterning arising from device processing; this is followed by an etching step, which normally damages the TMD film. Herein, we report the direct growth of MoSe₂ films on selective pattern areas via a surface-mediated liquid-phase promoter using a solution-based approach. Our growth process utilizes the promoter on the selective pattern area by enhancing wettability, resulting in a highly uniform MoSe₂ film. Moreover, our approach can produce other TMD films such as WSe₂ films as well as control various pattern shapes, sizes, and large-scale areas, thus improving their applicability in various devices in the future. Our patterned MoSe₂ field-effect transistor device exhibits a p-type dominant conduction behavior with a high on/off current ratio of ∼10⁶. Thus, our study provides general guidance for direct selective pattern growth via a solution-based approach and the future design of integrated devices for a large-scale application.