Unusually high thermal conductivity in suspended monolayer MoSi2N4

Abstract Two-dimensional semiconductors with high thermal conductivity and charge carrier mobility are of great importance for next-generation electronic and optoelectronic devices. However, constrained by the long-held Slack’s criteria, the reported two-dimensional semiconductors such as monolayers of MoS 2 , WS 2 , MoSe 2 , WSe 2 and black phosphorus suffer from much lower thermal conductivity than silicon (~142 W·m –1 ·K –1 ) because of the complex crystal structure, large average atomic mass and relatively weak chemical bonds. Despite the more complex crystal structure, the recently emerging monolayer MoSi 2 N 4 semiconductor has been predicted to have high thermal conductivity and charge carrier mobility simultaneously. In this work, using a noncontact optothermal Raman technique, we experimentally measure a high thermal conductivity of ~173 W·m –1 ·K –1 at room temperature for suspended monolayer MoSi 2 N 4 grown by chemical vapor deposition. First-principles calculations reveal that such unusually high thermal conductivity benefits from the high Debye temperature and small Grüneisen parameter of MoSi 2 N 4 , both of which are strongly dependent on the high Young’s modulus induced by the outmost Si-N bilayers. Our study not only establishes monolayer MoSi 2 N 4 as a benchmark 2D semiconductor for next-generation electronic and optoelectronic devices, but also provides an insight into the design of 2D materials for efficient heat conduction.