Electrodeposited WS$_2$ Monolayers on Fabricated Graphene Electrodes

Abstract

The development of scalable techniques to make 2D material heterostructures is a major obstacle that needs to be overcome before these materials can be implemented in device technologies industrially. Electrodeposition is an industrially compatible deposition technique that offers unique advantages in scaling 2D heterostructures. In this work, we demonstrate the electrodeposition of atomic layers of WS$_2$ over graphene electrodes using a single source precursor. Using conventional microfabrication techniques, graphene was patterned to create micro-electrodes where WS$_2$ was site-selectively deposited to form 2D heterostructures. We used various characterisation techniques, including atomic force microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, Raman spectroscopy and x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy to show that our electrodeposited WS$_2$ layers are highly uniform and can be grown over graphene at a controllable deposition rate. This technique to selectively deposit TMDCs over microfabricated graphene electrodes paves the way towards wafer-scale production of 2D material heterostructures for nanodevice applications.