Pulsed laser annealing of amorphous two-dimensional transition metal dichalcogenides

Large-area, flexible, two-dimensional transition metal dichalcogenide semiconductor materials (MoS2 and WSe2) were synthesized via magnetron sputtering of amorphous stoichiometric precursor materials on polydimethylsiloxane polymer substrates. Purely amorphous precursor materials and amorphous materials with pre-existing nanocrystalline regions observed via transmission electron microscopy were grown for the studies presented here. The MoS2 and WSe2 material precursors were then illuminated with a pulsed 532 nm laser to induce crystallization to their semiconducting hexagonal phases. The laser optics included an axicon lens to shape the Gaussian pulsed laser into a “Bessel beam” characterized by annular ring geometry. The pattern of the beam, with its rings of high-intensity laser light around a higher-intensity core, produced crystalline rings of the material around an ablation zone on the polymer substrate for MoS2 and WSe2 materials. The crystalline structure and density of atomic defects over the crystalline regions decreased as the same sample area was illuminated with additional pulses. The lateral coherence of the crystal lattice increased with the first 4 pulses but decreased with each subsequent pulse. The impact of preexisting nanocrystalline nanoinclusions in an amorphous film on the crystallization rate for WSe2 precursor materials was examined. The presence of nanocrystalline regions in the amorphous materials increased the crystallization rate under the photonic annealing conditions examined here. This approach of direct synthesis and patterning of materials is a route toward the fabrication of inexpensive flexible electronic devices.