Researchers Solve Moly Disulfide Issue

Phys.org reported that a team of researchers has found a way to avoid the problem of metals “forming high resistance” when placed on 2H phase molybdenum disulfide (MoS2).

Scientists have been searching for the basis of the next generation of computer chips, and until now MoS2 has not been viable due to that resistance.

As quoted in the market news:

The idea is that if a tiny section of a MoS2 sheet can be phase shifted to a metallic state, then wires could very easily be connected to it, and that’s exactly what the team has done—they developed a process they call lithiation which modifies the MoS2 to the metallic phase, by exposing the material to n-butyl lithium. To make sure it really works, they successfully built several field effect transistors using the modified sheets.

There are still some problems however, the team is having trouble finding a way to accurately phase shift just the part of a sheet they’re after, and because MoS2 is metastable, it tends to shift back to its purely semiconductor phase under certain conditions, and the researchers aren’t sure just yet what exactly those conditions are. The team is working on these issues, of course—one possible solution may be in producing MoS2 differently—creating flakes using exfoliation, perhaps or chemical vapor deposition.

Click here to read the full Phys.org report.