Introduction to the Growth of Bulk Single Crystals of Two-Dimensional Transition-Metal Dichalcogenides

Semiconducting two-dimensional transition-metal dichalcogenides (MX2) are attracting much attention as promising materials for a new generation of optical and electronic devices. MX2 compounds are complementary or competitive to graphene because of the existence of a native band gap. The growth of large and high-quality bulk single crystals is one of the critical issues for the application of MX2 compounds, whose bulk crystals are generally grown by the chemical vapor transport (CVT) method. In the present review, I introduce experimental techniques required for the CVT growth of high-quality MX2 single crystals.