Researchers in China and Korea have grown large-scale single-crystal monolayers of a two-dimensional material, tungsten disulphide (WS2), for the first time. The crystals, which were grown on a sapphire substrate, measured more than 3 cm across, and could become an alternative platform to silicon in next-generation semiconductor technology.
Silicon-based semiconductors are fast approaching their performance limits, so researchers are seeking new materials to replace them. Two-dimensional materials such as graphene (the most famous of all 2D materials) and WS2 show great promise in this context. The latter belongs to a family of materials known as transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs), all of which have the chemical formula MX2 (where M is a transition metal such as tungsten or molybdenum and X is a chalcogen such as sulphur, selenium or tellurium).
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