A quick method for synthesizing photosensitive materials discovered in Russia
A new highly effective approach to the production of molybdenum and tungsten disulfides, which are in demand for a new generation of photographic equipment, was proposed by researchers from MIET and MSU. The results are published in the Physica Status Solidi scientific journal.
Recent years have seen a growing interest in a new class of semiconductor materials called transition metal dichalcogenides, experts said. According to them, the thinnest layers of these compounds have unique light-absorbing properties.
The most popular of this class are molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) and tungsten disulfide (WS2). Their film is 10,000 times smaller than a human hair in thickness and is capable of absorbing up to 25% of the light that falls upon. This record value makes it possible to improve the matrices of cameras, solar panels and other photosensitive equipment. Both of these disulfides are produced in quartz furnaces, but this is a rather slow and difficult to control process, besides it does not scale well for mass production and has a number of limitations on the material's structure, the scientists explained.
Scientists from MIET and Moscow State University created an installation for the production of semiconductor transition metal disulfides with different spatial dimensions.
Developed at the Moscow State University named after Mikhail Lomonosov, the new method of synthesizing structures from MoS2 and WS2 makes it possible to obtain MoS2 films in just one or two minutes, and also makes it possible to control the morphology of the product during its creation. With its help, it is possible to obtain large-sized samples, as well as films in the form of nanowalls with a thickness of several atomic layers," said Boris Loginov, head of the MIET's Research Laboratory for Atomic Modification and Analysis of the surface of semiconductors.
Laboratory-scale installations for the synthesis of MoS2 and WS2, developed by scientists of MIET and Moscow State University and produced at JSC "PROTON" plant, have already been tested in obtaining various variants of semiconductor structures, the scientists reported.
"With a rapid change in the composition of the gas in our installation, for example, if molybdenum vapors are replaced with tungsten vapors and vice versa, it is possible to obtain films with alternating chemical composition, creating so-called heterojunctions, which are extremely in demand in infrared cameras, thermal imagers, ultrafast light pulse detectors and other modern photographic equipment," the author of the new method, graduate student of Moscow State University, Artem Loginov said.
In the future, the researchers intend to improve the system for the production of two-dimensional, one-atom thick materials from transition metal dichalcogenides.
Source: RIA Novosti