Seed Engineering toward Layer‐Regulated Growth of Magnetic Semiconductor VS 2

The discovery of layered magnetic semiconductor materials has stimulated a search for the magnetic order of atomically thin-layered materials. However, layer-controlled growth is difficult because of the high nucleation barrier of the material surface during the few-layer formation of 2D materials. Herein, a seeding solution method is demonstrated that changes the nucleation mode of seed crystals on the substrate surface by precisely controlling the concentration of metal precursors and promoting the formation of cluster seed nuclei to ensure a sufficient source of metal for subsequent reactions. It is studied that the kinetic and thermodynamic synergy through temperature control is readily to grow VS2 with a tunable layer number. Monolayer VS2 exhibits strong ferromagnetic ordering with a saturation magnetization strength (Ms) of 37 emu per cc and a coercivity (Hc) of 135 Oe at 300 K. Notably, the ferromagnetism of VS2 has layer-dependent performance of the saturation magnetization and coercivity decreases with increasing number of layers. Monolayer VS2 exhibits typical semiconductor properties in Hall devices. This study broadens the chemical pathway for the tunable synthesis of 2D layered magnetic materials and provides the possibility for the construction of novel spintronic and magnetoelectronic devices.