Top-gated chemical vapor deposited MoS2 field-effect transistors on Si3N4 substrates

We report the electrical characteristics of chemical vapor deposited (CVD) monolayer molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) top-gated field-effect transistors (FETs) on silicon nitride (Si3N4) substrates. We show that Si3N4 substrates offer comparable electrical performance to thermally grown SiO2 substrates for MoS2 FETs, offering an attractive passivating substrate for transition-metal dichalcogenides (TMD) with a smooth surface morphology. Single-crystal MoS2 grains are grown via vapor transport process using solid precursors directly on low pressure CVD Si3N4, eliminating the need for transfer processes which degrade electrical performance. Monolayer top-gated MoS2 FETs with Al2O3 gate dielectric on Si3N4 achieve a room temperature mobility of 24 cm(2)/V s with I-on/I-off current ratios exceeding 10(7). Using HfO2 as a gate dielectric, monolayer top-gated CVD MoS2 FETs on Si3N4 achieve current densities of 55 mu A/mu m and a transconductance of 6.12 mu S/mu m at V-tg of -5V and V-ds of 2V. We observe an increase in mobility at lower temperatures, indicating phonon scattering may dominate over charged impurity scattering in our devices. Our results show that Si3N4 is an attractive alternative to thermally grown SiO2 substrate for TMD FETs. (C) 2015 AIP Publishing LLC.