Density Functional Theory based Study of Chlorine Doped WS2-metal Interface

TL;DR

This study uses Density Functional Theory to analyze how chlorine doping affects the electronic properties and contact behavior of monolayer WS2 when interfaced with gold and palladium, revealing doping as an effective way to reduce Schottky barriers.

Contribution

It provides new insights into how chlorine doping modulates the electronic structure and contact properties of WS2-metal interfaces, with detailed analysis of Schottky barrier reduction.

Findings

Cl doping reduces Schottky barrier height for Au and Pd contacts

Pd forms chemisorbed p-type contact, Au forms physisorbed n-type contact

Doping enhances charge transfer at the interface

Abstract

Investigation of a TMD-metal interface is essential for the effective functioning of monolayer TMD based field effect transistors (FETs). In this work, we employ Density Functional Theory (DFT) calculations to analyze the modulation of the electronic structure of monolayer WS2 with chlorine doping and the relative changes in the contact properties when interfaced with gold and palladium. We initially examine the atomic and electronic structures of pure and doped monolayer WS2 supercell and explore the formation of mid gap states with band splitting near the conduction band edge. Further we analyze the contact nature of the pure supercell with Au and Pd. We find that while Au is physiosorped and forms n-type contact, Pd is chemisorped and forms p-type contact with a higher valence electron density. Next, we study the interface formed between the Cl-doped supercell and metals and observe a reduction in the Schottky barrier height (SBH) in comparison to the pure supercell. This reduction found is higher for Pd in comparison to Au which is further validated by examining the charge transfer occurring at the interface. Our study confirms that Cl doping is an efficient mechanism to reduce the n-SBH for both Au and Pd which form different types of contact with WS2.