Functional two-dimensional semiconductor material diode
Fabrication and low temperature electrical transport characteristics of aluminum-tungsten disulfide (WS2) point contact diodes
Ultra-sharp tungsten disulfide (WS2) probes were fabricated using a simple two-step process combining an electrochemical etching with a novel dry sulfurization process on tungsten wire. Using Al as the contact to form a Schottky junction, the electrical transport properties of WS2 was measured from room to low temperature where three different mechanism was shown. Electron mobility phenomenon was observed to behave differently at different temperature ranges. At room temperature (~283 – 268K), the main transport mechanism was found to follow the Arrhenius thermal activation model, with an estimated activation energy of 1.16 eV. As the temperature decreased to 228K, carrier transport was predominantly governed by nearest neighbor hopping (NNH) with an activation energy of 0.214 eV, likely due to insufficient thermal energy for emission. Between 228 – 181K, the dominant mechanism observed (through linear fitting) was the Seto grain boundary model, with an estimated barrier energy of 0.154 eV. In the temperature range of 181 – 110K, the primary mechanism identified (through linear fitting was the Mott variable range hopping (VRH) model, with a Mott characteristic temperature (TM) of 48566 K. In this work, some of the key parameters are inconsistent with literature review where we observed that the resistance vs. temperature plots have a sensitivity of up to 0.42 MΩ/K in the low-temperature range (181 – 110K), contrasting with 675Ω/K in the high-temperature range of 300K-228K.