Atomic Healing of Defects in Transition Metal Dichalcogenides

As-grown transition metal dichalcogenides are usually chalcogen deficient and therefore contain a high density of chalcogen vacancies, deep electron traps which can act as charged scattering centers, reducing the electron mobility. However, we show that chalcogen vacancies can be effectively passivated by oxygen, healing the electronic structure of the material. We proposed that this can be achieved by means of surface laser modification and demonstrate the efficiency of this processing technique, which can enhance the conductivity of monolayer WSe2 by ∼400 times and its photoconductivity by ∼150 times.