Molecular beam epitaxy and other large-scale methods for producing monolayer transition metal dichalcogenides

Transition metal dichalcogenide (TMD/TMDC) monolayers have gained considerable attention in recent years for their unique properties. Some of these properties include direct bandgap emission and strong mechanical and electronic properties. For these reasons, monolayer TMDs have been considered a promising material for next-generation quantum technologies and optoelectronic devices. However, for the field to make more gainful advancements and be implemented in devices, high-quality TMD monolayers need to be produced at a larger scale with high quality. In this article, some of the current means to produce larger-scale semiconducting monolayer TMDs will be reviewed. An emphasis will be given to the technique of molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) for two main reasons: (1) there is a growing body of research using this technique to grow TMD monolayers and (2) there is yet to be a body of work that has summarized the current research for MBE monolayer growth of TMDs.