Atomically thin MoS2 layer, a promising transition metal dichalcogenide (TMDC) material, has great potential for application in next-generation electronic and optoelectronic devices. Chemical vapor deposition (CVD) is the most effective technique for the synthesis of high-quality MoS2 layers. During CVD synthesis, monolayered MoS2 is generally synthesized by sulfidation of MoO3. Although qualitative reaction mechanisms for the sulfidation of MoO3 have been investigated by previous studies, the detailed reaction processes, including atomic-scale reaction pathways and growth kinetics, have yet to be fully understood. Here, we present quantum-mechanically informed and validated reactive molecular dynamics simulations of the direct sulfidation of MoO3 surfaces using S2 gas precursors. Our work clarifies the reaction mechanisms and kinetics of the sulfidation of MoO3 surfaces as follows: the reduction and sulfidation of MoO3 surfaces occur primarily at O-termination sites, followed by unsaturated Mo sites; these local reaction processes lead to nonuniform MoO x S y surface structures during the CVD process. After annealing the MoO x S y samples, the crystallized surface structures contain voids, and three different types of local surface complexes (MoO x , MoO x S y , and MoS2-like surface regions), depending on the fraction of S ingredients on the MoO x S y surface. These results, which have been validated by our reactive quantum molecular dynamics simulations and previous experimental results, provide valuable chemical insights into the CVD synthesis of large-scale and defect-free MoS2 layers and other layered TMDC materials.

The ReaxFF reactive force-field approach has significantly extended the applicability of reactive molecular dynamics simulations to a wide range of material properties and processes. ReaxFF parameters are commonly trained to fit a predefined set of quantummechanical data, but it remains uncertain how accurately the quantities of interest are described when applied to complex chemical reactions. Here, we present a dynamic approach based on multiobjective genetic algorithm for the training of ReaxFF parameters and uncertainty quantification of simulated quantities of interest. ReaxFF parameters are trained by directly fitting reactive molecular dynamics trajectories against quantum molecular dynamics trajectories on the fly, where the Pareto optimal front for the multiple quantities of interest provides an ensemble of ReaxFF models for uncertainty quantification. Our in situ multiobjective genetic algorithm workflow achieves scalability by eliminating the file I/O bottleneck using interprocess communications. The in situ multiobjective genetic algorithm workflow has been applied to high-temperature sulfidation of MoO 3 by H 2 S precursor, which is an essential reaction step for chemical vapor deposition synthesis of MoS 2 layers. Our work suggests a new reactive molecular dynamics simulation approach for far-from-equilibrium chemical processes, which quantitatively reproduces quantum molecular dynamics simulations while providing error bars.

Monolithic integration of III-V semiconductors with Si has been pursued for some time in the semiconductor industry. However, the mismatch of lattice constants and thermal expansion coefficients represents a large technological challenge for the heteroepitaxial growth. Nanowires, due to their small lateral dimension, can relieve strain and mitigate dislocation formation to allow single-crystal III-V materials to be grown on Si. Here, we report a facile five-step heteroepitaxial growth of GaAs nanowires on Si using selective area growth (SAG) in metalorganic chemical vapor deposition, and we further report an in-depth study on the twin formation mechanism. Rotational twin defects were observed in the nanowire structures and showed strong dependence on the growth condition and nanowire size. We adopt a model of faceted growth to demonstrate the formation of twins during growth, which is well supported by both a transmission electron microscopy study and simulation based on nucleation energetics. Our study has led to twin-free segments in the length up to 80 nm, a significant improvement compared to previous work using SAG. The achievements may open up opportunities for future functional III-V-on-Si heterostructure devices.

No abstract

No abstract