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Effective N-methyl-2-pyrrolidone wet cleaning for fabricating high-performance monolayer MoS2 transistors

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Abstract

Two-dimensional semiconductors, such as MoS2 are known to be highly susceptible to diverse molecular adsorbates on the surface during fabrication, which could adversely affect device performance. To ensure high device yield, uniformity and performance, the semiconductor industry has long employed wet chemical cleaning strategies to remove undesirable surface contaminations, adsorbates, and native oxides from the surface of Si wafers. A similarly effective surface cleaning technique for two-dimensional materials has not yet been fully developed. In this study, we propose a wet chemical cleaning strategy for MoS2 by using N-methyl-2-pyrrolidone. The cleaning process not only preserves the intrinsic properties of monolayer MoS2, but also significantly improves the performance of monolayer MoS2 field-effect-transistors. Superior device on current of 12 μA·μm–1 for a channel length of 400 nm, contact resistance of 15 kΩ·μm, field-effect mobility of 15.5 cm2·V–1·s–1, and the average on–off current ratio of 108 were successfully demonstrated

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Acknowledgements

Thanks for the fruitful discussion with Dr. Yao-Jen Lee, and Yi-Ling Jian. This work was supported by the “National Science Council” under contract No. MOST 105-2112-M-003-016-MY3. This work was also in part supported by the “National Nano Device Laboratories”.

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Author notes

  1. Po-Chun Chen and Chih-Pin Lin contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physics, “National Taiwan Normal University”, Taipei, 11677, Taiwan

    Po-Chun Chen, Yun-Yan Lin & Yann-Wen Lan

  2. Department of Electronics Engineering and Institute of Electronics, “National Chiao Tung University”, Hsinchu, 30010, Taiwan

    Chih-Pin Lin & Tuo-Hung Hou

  3. Department of Physics and Center for Nanotechnology, Chung Yuan Christian University, Chungli, 32023, Taiwan

    Chuan-Jie Hong, Chih-Hao Yang & Yuan-Liang Zhong

  4. Research Center for Applied Sciences, “Academia Sinica”, Taipei, 11529, Taiwan

    Ming-Yang Li

  5. Physical Sci. and Eng., King Abdullah University of Sci. and Technology, Thuwal, 23955, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

    Lain-Jong Li

  6. “National Nano Device Laboratories”, “National Applied Research Laboratories”, Hsinchu, 30078, Taiwan

    Tung-Yuan Yu, Chun-Jung Su & Kai-Shin Li

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  1. Po-Chun Chen
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Chen, PC., Lin, CP., Hong, CJ. et al. Effective N-methyl-2-pyrrolidone wet cleaning for fabricating high-performance monolayer MoS2 transistors. Nano Res. 12, 303–308 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-018-2215-5

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