Insight into the growth mechanism of black phosphorus

Two-dimensional (2D) black phosphorus (BP) has attracted great attention in recent years in fundamental research as well as optoelectronics applications. The controllable synthesis of high-quality BP is vital to the investigation of its intrinsic physical properties and versatile applications. Originally, BP was mostly synthesized under high temperatures and pressures. Subsequently, metal flux, wet chemical and chemical vapor transport (CVT) methods had been appeared successively. The pulsed laser deposition (PLD) and CVT methods have been used to prepare high-quality BP thin films on silicon substrates, which is significant for its monolithic integration and practical applications. To meet the demand of the scalable applications of BP, the direct preparation of BP films on dielectric substrates that avoids additional transfer process, is crucial to high-performance device implementation. In this review, the growing methods and corresponding mechanisms of BP are summarized and analyzed. Meanwhile, the view on the controllable growth of large-area, high-quality BP films is envisioned.