Temperature-Field-Mediated Stable Lewis Acid p-Type Doping of TMDs for Photodetectors and CMOS Inverters

The predominance of n-type semiconductors in 2D materials, caused by surface impurities and intrinsic defects, limits their electronic applications. Lewis acid treatment can effectively deplete the electrons and increase the hole concentration, resulting in p-type doping. However, the conventional Lewis acid doping methods lack stability. To address this critical challenge, a temperature-field-mediated strategy is developed to achieve stable p-type doping in transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs). After temperature-field-mediated Lewis acid doping, the doped TMDs retain virtually unchanged electrical properties after 31 days under ambient conditions. Density Functional Theory (DFT) calculations and ab initio molecular dynamics (AIMD) simulations have been employed to analyze the mechanism by which Fe doping achieves p-type doping and remarkable stability. This method applies to a range of transition metal dichalcogenides, including WS₂, MoSe₂, WSe₂, and MoTe₂. Moreover, the construction of PdSe₂ p-n homojunctions enables photodetectors with an on-off ratio of 1.4 × 10⁴, responsivity of 0.33 A/W, and specific detectivity of 1.55 × 10¹¹ Jones, alongside an inverter achieving peak power consumption as low as 60 pW. This work has achieved high-performance and stable p-n homojunction applications through the design of a temperature-field-mediated Lewis acid doping strategy, thereby advancing the development of 2D material modification.