Hi All, I am working on the synthesis of TMD materials on sapphire substrates by CVD. The sapphire substrates that I'm using is O-terminated, but I want to synthesize TMDs on the Al-terminated sapphire substrates. So is there any good method to make sapphire substrates Al-terminated? I have learned that one method is to anneal sapphire at ultra-high vacuum (UHV), but there's no such an equipment in my lab. Can you bring up other methods? Thank you very much.
Hi Yanan,
I would suggest you to go for two simple techniques:
1. Ar ion sputtering: It has been observed that argon ion sputtering is used for removal of oxygen and lead to Aluminium dangling bonds on the surface (i.e. Al terminated surface). However, it should be done in-situ else the oxygen from ambient would stick to the surface again.
2. Wet chemical etching: There are many reports in the literature, where wet chemical etching is used to modify the surface polarity (surface termination). You have to search for the best chemical method according to you need.
and you can also check the polarity (surface termination) later via AFM measurements.
I hope this helps.
Regards,
Monu Mishra
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