Synthesis of Rhenium-Doped Molybdenum Sulfide by Atmospheric Pressure Chemical Vapor Deposition (CVD) for a High-Performance Photodetector

[Image: see text] Two-dimensional layered materials have attracted tremendous attention as photodetectors due to their fascinating features, including comprehensive coverage of band gaps, high potential in new-generation electronic devices, mechanical flexibility, and sensitive light–mass interaction. Currently, graphene and transition-metal dichalcogenides (TMDCs) are the most attractive active materials for constructing photodetectors. A growing number of emerging TMDCs applied in photodetectors bring up opportunities in the direct band gap independence with thickness. This study demonstrated for the first time a photodetector based on a few-layer Re(x)Mo(1–x)S(2), which was grown by chemical vapor deposition (CVD) under atmospheric pressure. The detailed material characterizations were performed using Raman spectroscopy, photoluminescence, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) on an as-grown few-layer Re(x)Mo(1–x)S(2). The results show that both MoS(2) and ReS(2) peaks appear in the Re(x)Mo(1–x)S(2) Raman diagram. Re(x)Mo(1–x)S(2) is observed to emit light at a wavelength of 716.8 nm. The electronic band structure of the few layers of Re(x)Mo(1–x)S(2) calculated using the first-principles theory suggests that the band gap of Re(x)Mo(1–x)S(2) is larger than that of ReS(2) and smaller than that of MoS(2), which is consistent with the photoluminescence results. The thermal stability of the few layers of Re(x)Mo(1–x)S(2) was evaluated using Raman temperature measurements. It is found that the thermal stability of Re(x)Mo(1–x)S(2) is close to those of pure ReS(2) and MoS(2). The fabricated Re(x)Mo(1–x)S(2) photodetector shows a high response rate of 7.46 A W(–1) under 365 nm illumination, offering a competitive performance to the devices based on TMDCs and graphenes. This study unambiguously distinguishes Re(x)Mo(1–x)S(2) as a future candidate in electronics and optoelectronics.