Thin-Film Deposition of Surface Passivated Black Phosphorus

Nezhueyotl Izquierdo, Jason C. Myers, Nicholas C.A. Seaton, Sushil K. Pandey, Stephen A Campbell

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

21 Scopus citations

Abstract

A single-step, direct silicon-substrate growth of black phosphorus (BP) crystals is achieved in a self-contained short-way transport technique under low-pressure conditions (<1.5 MPa). A 115 nm-thick BP hero single crystal is formed with lateral dimensions of 10 85 m. The synthesis proceeds with Sn, SnI4, and red phosphorus and has a well-defined phosphorus phase dependency on the SnI4 concentration. Furthermore, in situ Sn passivation of BP occurs. This allows long-term stability with no sign of any degradation after 4 months of exposure to ambient conditions. Single-crystal BP flakes and multigrain flakes with high- A nd low-angle grain boundaries are achieved. Electron backscatter diffraction determined crystal growth to be independent of the substrate, which is further supported by successful growth on various substrates, including sapphire, silicon nitride, silicon, and silicon oxide. Cross-sectional transmission electron microscopy of a single crystal flake provides valuable insight into the growth mechanism. Elemental Sn encapsulates BP crystals, and crystalline SnIx inclusions are found to be scattered throughout the BP crystal. It is suggested that SnIx inclusions may provide the dominant mechanism for seeding vertical growth. IR absorption measurements for thin and bulk BP recipes show an equal response below Eg dominated by free carrier absorption. FET devices fabricated from thin-film and bulk BP recipes show improved device performance compared to unpassivated BP films of equal thickness with an on/off current ratio >102.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)7091-7099
Number of pages9
JournalACS nano
Volume13
Issue number6
DOIs
StatePublished - Jun 25 2019

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
Portions of this work were conducted in the Minnesota Nano Center, which is supported by the National Science Foundation through the National Nano Coordinated Infrastructure Network, award number EECS-1542202. N.I. and S.K.P. also received support from this award. Parts of this work were carried out in the Characterization Facility, University of Minnesota, which receives partial support from NSF through the MRSEC program, award number DMR-1420013. Special thanks to B. Luo for assistance on absorption measurement experiments.

Funding Information:
N.I. and S.K.P. also received support from this award. Parts of this work were carried out in the Characterization Facility, University of Minnesota, which receives partial support from NSF through the MRSEC program, award number DMR-1420013.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2019 American Chemical Society.

Keywords

  • black phosphorus
  • growth
  • nucleation
  • thin film
  • two-dimensional

MRSEC Support

  • Shared

PubMed: MeSH publication types

  • Journal Article

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