Direct observation of the hysteretic Fermi level modulation in monolayer MoS2 field effect transistors

The hysteresis in the transfer curve of MoS2 has significant impact on the device performance. However, the hysteresis mechanism is still not clear. Here, we investigate the hysteresis of the monolayer MoS2 by probing the local Fermi level variations as a function of the back gate voltage in different atmosphere using the Kelvin probe microscopy. While the Fermi level of the MoS2 in air is much lower than that in vacuum, both the MoS2 devices in vacuum and air show large Fermi level hysteresis. The Fermi level hysteresis direction is clock-wise, identical to that observed in the transfer curves. Both the hysteresis in Fermi level and transfer curve can be explained consistently by taking into account the charge trapping. Our findings confirm that carrier density modulation in MoS2 plays a vital role in the hysteresis, and provide insight into the hysteresis mechanism for the optimization of the device performance.