Molybdenum Disulfide Nanoflakes Grown by Chemical Vapor Deposition on Graphite: Nucleation, Orientation, and Charge Transfer

Two-dimensional molybdenum disulfide on graphene grown by chemical vapor deposition is a promising van der Waals system for applications in optoelectronics and catalysis. To extend the fundamental understanding of growth and intrinsic properties of molybdenum disulfide on graphene, molybdenum disulfide on highly oriented pyrolytic graphite is a suitable model system. Here, we show experimentally and by density functional theory calculations that molybdenum disulfide flakes grow in two orientations. One of the orientations is energetically preferred, the other one is rotated by 30°, but both orientations are found to be stable at room temperature. Combined Kelvin probe microscopy and Raman spectroscopy measurements show that the flakes with a typical size of a few hundred nanometers are electron doped in the order of 1012/cm2, while the doping of a molybdenum disulfide single layer exfoliated on silicon dioxide is on the order of 1013/cm2.