Here, we report the origin of the yellow-band emission in epitaxial GaN nanowire arrays grown under carbon-free conditions. GaN nanowires directly grown on [0001]-oriented sapphire substrate exhibit an obvious and broad yellow-band in the visible range 400-800 nm, whereas the insertion of Al/Au layers in GaN-sapphire interface significantly depresses the visible emission, and only a sharp peak in the UV range (369 nm) can be observed. The persuasive differences in cathodoluminescence provide direct evidence for demonstrating that the origin of the yellow-band emission in GaN nanowire arrays arises from dislocation threading. The idea using buffering/barrier layers to isolate the dislocation threading in epitaxially grown GaN nanowires can be extended to the rational synthesis and structural defect controlling of a wide range of semiconductor films and nanostructures with superior crystal quality and excellent luminescence property.

Using remote N plasma treatment to promote dielectric deposition on the dangling-bond free MoS is explored for the first time. The N plasma induced damages are systematically studied by the defect-sensitive acoustic-phonon Raman of single-layer MoS, with samples undergoing O plasma treatment as a comparison. O plasma treatment causes defects in MoS mainly by oxidizing MoS along the already defective sites (most likely the flake edges), which results in the layer oxidation of MoS. In contrast, N plasma causes defects in MoS mainly by straining and mechanically distorting the MoS layers first. Owing to the relatively strong MoS-substrate interaction and chemical inertness of MoS in N plasma, single-layer MoS shows great stability in N plasma and only stable point defects are introduced after long-duration N plasma exposure. Considering the enormous vulnerability of single-layer MoS in O plasma and the excellent stability of single-layer MoS in N plasma, the remote N plasma treatment shows great advantage as surface functionalization to promote dielectric deposition on single-layer MoS.

As a two-dimensional semiconductor, WS2 has attracted great attention due to its rich physical properties and potential applications. However, it is still difficult to synthesize monolayer single-crystalline WS2 at larger scale. Here, we report the growth of large-scale triangular single-crystalline WS2 with a semi-sealed installation by chemical vapor deposition (CVD). Through this method, triangular single-crystalline WS2 with an average length of more than 300 µm was obtained. The largest one was about 405 μm in length. WS2 triangles with different sizes and thicknesses were analyzed by optical microscope and atomic force microscope (AFM). Their optical properties were evaluated by Raman and photoluminescence (PL) spectra. This report paves the way to fabricating large-scale single-crystalline monolayer WS2, which is useful for the growth of high-quality WS2 and its potential applications in the future.

Transistors based on MoS2 and other TMDs have been widely studied. The dangling-bond free surface of MoS2 has made the deposition of high-quality high-k dielectrics on MoS2 a challenge. The resulted transistors often suffer from the threshold voltage instability induced by the high density traps near MoS2/dielectric interface or inside the gate dielectric, which is detrimental for the practical applications of MoS2 metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistor (MOSFET). In this work, by using AlN deposited by plasma enhanced atomic layer deposition (PEALD) as an interfacial layer, top-gate dielectrics as thin as 6 nm for single-layer MoS2 transistors are demonstrated. The AlN interfacial layer not only promotes the conformal deposition of high-quality Al2O3 on the dangling-bond free MoS2, but also greatly enhances the electrical stability of the MoS2 transistors. Very small hysteresis (ΔVth) is observed even at large gate biases and high temperatures. The transistor also exhibits a low level of flicker noise, which clearly originates from the Hooge mobility fluctuation instead of the carrier number fluctuation. The observed superior electrical stability of MoS2 transistor is attributed to the low border trap density of the AlN interfacial layer, as well as the small gate leakage and high dielectric strength of AlN/Al2O3 dielectric stack.

Layered material MoS2 has been attracting much attention due to its excellent electronical properties and catalytic property. Here we report the synthesis of vertically standing MoS2 triangles on silicon carbon(SiC), through a rapid sulfidation process. Such edge-terminated films are metastable structures of MoS2, which may find applications in FinFETs and catalytic reactions. We have confirmed the catalytic property in a hydrogen evolution reaction(HER). The Tafel slope is about 54mV/decade.