Controlled growth of 3R phase niobium diselenide and its properties

Inversion symmetry broken 3R phase transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) show fascinating prospects in spintronics, valleytronics, and nonlinear optics. However, the controlled synthesis of 3R phase TMDs is still a great challenge. In this work, two-dimensional 3R-NbSe₂ single crystals up to 0.2 mm were synthesized for the first time through chemical vapor deposition method by designing a space-confined system. The crystal size and morphology can be controlled by the location of the stacked substrates and the amount of the Nb₂O₅ precursor. Scanning transmission electron microscopy and Raman measurements reveal the NbSe₂ exhibits a pure 3R stacking mode with relatively weak interlayer van der Waals interactions. Importantly, 3R-NbSe₂ shows obvious second harmonic generation signal which intensity intensified as thickness increases. Density functional theory calculations and optical absorption demonstrate the coexistence of metallic and semiconducting optical properties of 3R-NbSe₂. We designed a NbSe₂/WS₂/NbSe₂ photodetector utilizing the metallicity of 3R-NbSe₂, which shows good performance especially an ultrafast response (6-7 μs, 0.5 ms - 7.9 s for Au electrodes in literature). The proposed strategy and findings are of great significance for the growth of many other 3R-TMDs and applications of nonlinear optical and ultrafast devices.