Damage-Free Charge Transfer Doping of 2D Transition Metal Dichalcogenide Channels by van der Waals Stamping of MoO₃ and LiF

To dope 2D semiconductor channels, charge-transfer doping has generally been done by thermal deposition of inorganic or organic thin-film layers on top of the 2D channel in bottom-gate field-effect transistors (FETs). The doping effects are reproducible in most cases. However, such thermal deposition will damage the surface of 2D channels due to the kinetic energy of depositing atoms, causing hysteresis or certain degradation. Here, a more desirable charge-transfer doping process is suggested. A damage-free charge-transfer doping is conducted for 2D MoTe₂ (or MoS₂) channels using a polydimethylsiloxane stamp. MoO₃ or LiF is initially deposited on the stamp as a doping medium. Hysteresis-minimized transfer characteristics are achieved from stamp-doped FETs, while other devices with direct thermal deposition-doped channels show large hysteresis. The stamping method seems to induce a van der Waals-like damage-free interface between the channel and doping media. The stamp-induced doping is also well applied for a MoTe₂-based complementary inverter because MoO₃- and LiF-doping by separate stamps effectively modifies two ambipolar MoTe₂ channels to p- and n-type, respectively.