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Unveiling the origin of anomalous low-frequency Raman mode in CVD-grown monolayer WS2

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Abstract

Substrates provide the necessary support for scientific explorations of numerous promising features and exciting potential applications in two-dimensional (2D) transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs). To utilize substrate engineering to alter the properties of 2D TMDs and avoid introducing unwanted adverse effects, various experimental techniques, such as high-frequency Raman spectroscopy, have been used to understand the interactions between 2D TMDs and substrates. However, sample-substrate interaction in 2D TMDs is not yet fully understood due to the lack of systematic studies by techniques that are sensitive to 2D TMD-substrate interaction. This work systematically investigates the interaction between tungsten disulfide (WS2) monolayers and substrates by low-frequency Raman spectroscopy, which is very sensitive to WS2-substrate interaction. Strong coupling with substrates is clearly revealed in chemical vapor deposition (CVD)-grown monolayer WS2 by its low-wavenumber interface mode. It is demonstrated that the enhanced sample-substrate interaction leads to tensile strain on monolayer WS2, which is induced during the cooling process of CVD growth and could be released for monolayer WS2 sample after transfer or fabricated by an annealing-free method such as mechanical exfoliation. These results not only suggest the effectiveness of low-frequency Raman spectroscopy for probing sample-substrate interactions in 2D TMDs, but also provide guidance for the design of high-performance devices with the desired sample-substrate coupling strength based on 2D TMDs.

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Acknowledgements

This work is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 62004197 and 61774040), the Ministry of Education of Singapore (No. MOE2019-T2-1-004), the Singapore National Research Foundation under the Competitive Research Programs (No. NRF-CRP-21-2018-0007), the National Key R&D Program of China (No. 2018YFA0703700), the National Young 1000 Talent Plan of China, the Shanghai Municipal Natural Science Foundation (No. 20ZR1403200), the Shanghai Municipal Science and Technology Commission (No. 18JC1410300), the Fudan University-CIOMP Joint Fund (No. FC2018-002), and the Natural Science Foundation of Liaoning Province, China (Nos. 2019-BS-243 and 2019-MS-320).

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  1. Qian **ang and **aofei Yue contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Chemical Lasers, Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Dalian, 116023, China

    Qian **ang, Yanlong Wang, Shaoqian Zhang, Gang Li, Qingwei Li & Yuqi **

  2. State Key Laboratory of ASIC & System, School of Information Science and Technology, Fudan University, Shanghai, 200433, China

    **aofei Yue, Jiajun Chen & Chunxiao Cong

  3. School of Materials Science and Engineering, **’an Polytechnic University, **’an, 710048, China

    Bin Du

  4. Division of Physics and Applied Physics, School of Physical and Mathematical Sciences, Nanyang Technological University, 637371, Singapore, Singapore

    Ting Yu

  5. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Bei**g, 100049, China

    Qian **ang

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  1. Qian **ang
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Correspondence to Yanlong Wang, Chunxiao Cong or Ting Yu.

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**ang, Q., Yue, X., Wang, Y. et al. Unveiling the origin of anomalous low-frequency Raman mode in CVD-grown monolayer WS2. Nano Res. 14, 4314–4320 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-021-3769-1

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