Thickness-modulated metal-to-semiconductor transformation in a transition metal dichalcogenide

Alberto Ciarrocchi, Ahmet Avsar, Dmitry Ovchinnikov and Andras Kis ()
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Alberto Ciarrocchi: École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL)
Ahmet Avsar: École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL)
Dmitry Ovchinnikov: École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL)
Andras Kis: École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL)

Nature Communications, 2018, vol. 9, issue 1, 1-6

Abstract: Abstract The possibility of tailoring physical properties by changing the number of layers in van der Waals crystals is one of the driving forces behind the emergence of two-dimensional materials. One example is bulk MoS2, which changes from an indirect gap semiconductor to a direct bandgap semiconductor in the monolayer form. Here, we show a much bigger tuning range with a complete switching from a metal to a semiconductor in atomically thin PtSe2 as its thickness is reduced. Crystals with a thickness of ~13 nm show metallic behavior with a contact resistance as low as 70 Ω·µm. As they are thinned down to 2.5 nm and below, we observe semiconducting behavior. In such thin crystals, we demonstrate ambipolar transport with a bandgap smaller than 2.2 eV and an on/off ratio of ~105. Our results demonstrate that PtSe2 possesses an unusual behavior among 2D materials, enabling novel applications in nano and optoelectronics.

Date: 2018
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DOI: 10.1038/s41467-018-03436-0

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