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Abstract:
Large-area and high-quality single-layer transition metal dichalcogenides can be synthesized by epitaxial growth on single-crystal substrates. An important advantage of this approach is that the interaction between the single layer and the substrate can be strong enough to enforce a single crystalline orientation of the layer.
On the other hand, the same interaction can lead to hybridization effects, resulting in the deterioration of the single layer’s native properties. This dilemma can potentially be solved by decoupling the single layer from the substrate surface after the growth via intercalation of atoms or molecules. Here we show that such a decoupling can indeed be achieved for single-layer WS2
epitaxially grown on Ag(111) by intercalation of Bi atoms. This process leads to a suppression of the single-layer WS2-Ag substrate interaction, yielding an electronic band structure reminiscent of free-standing single-layer WS2.
