Seeded 2D epitaxy of large-area single-crystal films of the van der Waals semiconductor 2H MoTe 2

Seeding 2D crystals Small, single crystals are often used to direct the growth of larger, bulk single crystals. Xu et al. modified these methods to grow single-crystal films of a two-dimensional (2D) semiconductor, 2H molybdenum ditelluride (2H MoTe 2 ), on an amorphous glass surface. After coating the wafer with a 1T′ MoTe 2 film, a small 2H MoTe 2 crystallite was placed on the wafer. The wafer was capped with an alumina film, except for a small hole above the seed region that allowed entry of additional tellurium during the heating process that drove the phase transition and epitaxial growth of 2H MoTe 2 . Science , this issue p. 195