Large-area and few-layered 1T'-MoTe2 thin films grown by cold-wall chemical vapor deposition.

This study employs cold-wall chemical vapor deposition to achieve the growth of MoTe 2 thin films on 4-inch sapphire substrates. A two-step growth process is utilized, incorporating MoO 3 and Te powder sources under low-pressure conditions to synthesize MoTe2. The resultant MoTe 2 thin films exhibit a dominant 1T' phase, as evidenced by a prominent Raman peak at 161 cm -1 . This preferential 1T' phase formation is attributed to controlled manipulation of the second-step growth temperature, essentially the reaction stage between Te vapor and the pre-deposited MoOx layer. Under these optimized growth conditions, the thickness of the continuous 1T'-MoTe 2 films can be precisely tailored within the range of 3.5 - 5.7 nm (equivalent to 5 - 8 layers), as determined by atomic force microscopy depth profiling. Hall-effect measurements unveil a typical hole concentration and mobility of 0.2 cm 2 /V-s and 7.9 × 10 21 cm -3 , respectively, for the synthesized few-layered 1T'-MoTe2 films. Furthermore, Ti/Al bilayer metal contacts deposited on the few-layered 1T'-MoTe 2 films exhibit low specific contact resistances of approximately 1.0 × 10 -4 Ω-cm 2 estimated by the transfer length model. This finding suggests a viable approach for achieving low ohmic contact resistance using the 1T'-MoTe 2 intermediate layer between metallic electrodes and two-dimensional semiconductors.