Growth of Large Area WSe2 and Observation of Photogenerated Inversion Layer in DMOS Configuration

TL;DR

This paper details the synthesis, characterization, and device integration of large-area few-layer WSe2, demonstrating its potential for high-frequency photodetection and inversion layer applications in Si-based MOS structures.

Contribution

It presents a novel method for synthesizing high-quality large-area WSe2 films and integrates them into MOS devices, revealing their high-frequency photo-capacitance performance.

Findings

Successful growth of large-area WSe2 with high crystallinity.

Observation of strong second harmonic emission from WSe2.

Enhanced photo-capacitance and inversion layer effects in MOS devices.

Abstract

Here, we report the full-fledged journey towards the material synthesis and characterization of few-layered/thin WSe$_2$ using sputtered W-films on SiO$_2$/Si substrates followed by electrical studies under dark and illumination conditions. Growth temperature 500oC and gas pressure 55 sccm are found to be the optimized parameters for formation of thermodynamically stable WSe$_{2-x}$ with dominant Raman peak at 265 cm-1. XRD and HR-TEM measurement clarify the formation of high crystallinity along the c-axis and quasi-crystallinity along a and b axes respectively. Lower intensities from Raman-measurement and PL-peak at 768 nm (with 532 nm excitation wavelength) infers the thin nature of the grown film, along with strong second harmonic emission with excitation wavelength varying from 350nm to 450 nm. This work also retracks the controlled etching by reactive ions to achieve large area bi/tri-layer films to fabricate advanced devices. We also have fabricated an advanced MOS structure on SiO$_2$/p-Si substrate which shows tremendous performance by means of photo-capacitance under illumination condition where photo-carriers can survive the higher probe frequencies (> 1MHz). Under illumination condition, HfO$_2$/WSe$_2$ embedded MOS shows its dominance showing a huge electron-inversion region over HfO$_2$/ SiO$_2$/p-Si and SiO$_2$/p-Si MOS devices even at high frequencies (1-10 MHz). Thereby, this work also reveals a possible route for capacitance based highly sensitive photodetection using conventional Si-technology with integration of such WSe$_2$/W as an active material.