Researchers in the Laser Thermal Laboratory have developed a new method for the stable doping of atomically layered transition-metal dichalchogenide materials TMDCs. TMDCs play a crucial role in next generation opto- electronic devices enabling new functionalities to overcome limitations of current semiconductor devices. Doping is a central issue in the integration of these new materials into device applications. Past studies on the doping of semiconducting 2D materials were limited to localized modulation of electronic and optical properties that also lacks stability.
Eunpa Kim, a LTL graduate and current post-doc, together with Ken Kim, also a LTL graduate and former post-doc and Changhyun Kim, a post-doc with Professor Junqiao Wu of UCB’s Materials Science & Engineering overcame these barriers by introducing a new, laser-assisted, in-situ substitutional doping process. This process accomplishes site-specific, tunable optical and electrical properties with long-term stability in air and constitutes a platform for creating a family of doped materials that could be used as hetero-structure systems. This work may therefore pave a way toward future fine-tuned devices. The fabrication was conducted using the Laser-Assisted Chemical Vapor Deposition LACVD apparatus at the UCB’s Marvell Nanofabrication Laboratory.