Controlled Layer-by-Layer Oxidation of MoTe2 via O3 Exposure

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates a precise layer-by-layer oxidation method for MoTe2 using ozone exposure, enabling controlled oxide thickness and potential applications in CMOS transistors.

Contribution

It introduces a simple ozone-based process for uniform, atomically precise oxide growth on MoTe2, advancing TMD integration in electronics.

Findings

Oxide thickness can be tuned with atomic precision by varying O3 exposure time.

MoOx-covered MoTe2 exhibits hole-dominated transport behavior.

The method provides a promising route for surface passivation and dielectric layers in transistors.

Abstract

Growing uniform oxides with various thickness on TMDs is one of the biggest challenges to integrate TMDs into complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) logic circuits. Here, we report a layer-by-layer oxidation of atomically thin MoTe2 flakes via ozone (O3) exposure. The thickness of MoOx oxide film could be tuning with atomic-level accuracy simply by varying O3 exposure time. Additionally, MoOx-covered MoTe2 shows a hole-dominated transport behavior. Our findings point to a simple and effective strategy for growing homogenous surface oxide film on MoTe2, which is promising for several purposes in metal-oxide-semiconductor transistor, ranging from surface passivation to dielectric layers.