Improved Current Density and Contact Resistance in Bilayer MoSe₂Field Effect Transistors by AlO_xCapping

Atomically thin semiconductors are of interest for future electronics applications, and much attention has been given to monolayer (1L) sulfides, such as MoS2, grown by chemical vapor deposition (CVD). However, reports on the electrical properties of CVD-grown selenides, and MoSe2 in particular, are scarce. Here, we compare the electrical properties of 1L and bilayer (2L) MoSe2 grown by CVD and capped by sub-stoichiometric AlOx. The 2L channels exhibit ∼20× lower contact resistance (RC) and ∼30× larger current density compared with 1L channels. RC is further reduced by >5× with AlOx capping, which enables improved transistor current density. Overall, 2L AlOx-capped MoSe2 transistors (with ∼500 nm channel length) achieve improved current density (∼65 μA/μm at VDS = 4 V), a good Ion/Ioff ratio of >106, and an RC of ∼60 kω·μm. The weaker performance of 1L devices is due to their sensitivity to processing and ambient. Our results suggest that 2L (or few layers) is preferable to 1L for improved electronic properties in applications that do not require a direct band gap, which is a key finding for future two-dimensional electronics.