Mott variable-range hopping transport in a MoS(2) nanoflake

The transport characteristics of a disordered, multilayered MoS(2) nanoflake in the insulator regime are studied by electrical and magnetotransport measurements. The MoS(2) nanoflake is exfoliated from a bulk MoS(2) crystal and the conductance G and magnetoresistance are measured in a four-probe setup over a wide range of temperatures. At high temperatures, we observe that ln G exhibits a −T(−1) temperature dependence and the transport in the nanoflake dominantly arises from thermal activation. At low temperatures, where the transport in the nanoflake dominantly takes place via variable-range hopping (VRH) processes, we observe that ln G exhibits a −T(−1/3) temperature dependence, an evidence for the two-dimensional (2D) Mott VRH transport. Furthermore, we observe that the measured low-field magnetoresistance of the nanoflake in the insulator regime exhibits a quadratic magnetic field dependence ∼ αB(2) with α ∼ T(−1), fully consistent with the 2D Mott VRH transport in the nanoflake.