CVD growth of large-area monolayer WS(2) film on sapphire through tuning substrate environment and its application for high-sensitive strain sensor

Large-area, continuous monolayer WS(2) exhibits great potential for future micro-nanodevice applications due to its special electrical properties and mechanical flexibility. In this work, the front opening quartz boat is used to increase the amount of sulfur (S) vapor under the sapphire substrate, which is critical for achieving large-area films during the chemical vapor deposition processes. COMSOL simulations reveal that the front opening quartz boat will significantly introduce gas distribute under the sapphire substrate. Moreover, the gas velocity and height of substrate away from the tube bottom will also affect the substrate temperature. By carefully optimizing the gas velocity, temperature, and height of substrate away from the tube bottom, a large-scale continues monolayered WS(2) film was achieved. Field-effect transistor based on the as-grown monolayer WS(2) showed a mobility of 3.76 cm(2)V(−1) s(−1) and ON/OFF ratio of 10(6). In addition, a flexible WS(2)/PEN strain sensor with a gauge factor of 306 was fabricated, showing great potential for applications in wearable biosensors, health monitoring, and human–computer interaction. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s11671-023-03782-z.