Epitaxial van der Waals Contacts between Transition-Metal Dichalcogenide Monolayer Polymorphs

We have achieved heteroepitaxial stacking of a van der Waals (vdW) monolayer metal, 1T’-WTe2, and a semiconductor, 2H-WSe2, in which a distinctively low contact barrier was established across a clean epitaxial vdW gap. Our epitaxial 1T’-WTe2 films were identified as a semimetal by low temperature transport and showed the robust breakdown current density of 5.0 × 107 A/cm2. In comparison with a series of planar metal contacts, our epitaxial vdW contact was identified to possess intrinsic Schottky barrier heights below 100 meV for both electron and hole injections, contributing to superior ambipolar field-effect transistor (FET) characteristics, i.e., higher FET mobilities and higher on–off current ratios at smaller threshold gate voltages. We discuss our observations around the critical roles of the epitaxial vdW heterointerfaces, such as incommensurate stacking sequences and absence of extrinsic interfacial defects that are inaccessible by other contact methods.