29 December 2017 – As part of a team led by Dr. Jeffrey Elam at Argonne National Laboratory, MSE PhD student Steve Letourneau and MSE Assistant Professor Elton Graugnard were co-authors on a paper reporting the synthesis of molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) using atomic layer deposition (ALD). The team used the carbon-free chemical precursors molybdenum hexafluoride and hydrogen sulfide to grow the MoS2 at the low temperature of 200 °C. MoS2 is a potentially important semiconductor and avoiding carbon chemicals can help to reduce contamination in the material. After annealing the as-grown films at 350 °C, the materials exhibited signatures of the desired two-dimensional structure consisting of sheets of molybdenum sandwiched between layers of sulfur. The work was published in the Journal of Vacuum Science & Technology A 36 01A125 (2018) (DOI: 10.1116/1.5003423).
Steve Letourneau was supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of Workforce Development for Teachers and Scientists, Office of Science Graduate Student Research (SCGSR) program and the Micron School of Materials Science & Engineering. The SCGSR program is administered by the Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education for the DOE under Contract No. DE-SC0014664.