Both tin monosulfide (SnS) and tin disulfide (SnS2) are thermodynamically stable layered materials with potential for spin-valleytronic devices and photodetectors. Notably, monolayer SnS, owing to its low symmetry, exhibits interesting properties such as ferroelectricity, shift-current, and a persistent spin helix state in the monolayer limit. However, creating atomic-thickness crystals of SnS is challenging owing to the enhanced interlayer interactions caused by lone pair electrons, unlike to SnS2. Here, we demonstrate that p-type SnS can be selectively grown by simply varying the sulfur vapor concentration relative to tin using single-element precursors. We show that monolayer SnS crystals, up to several tens of micrometers in lateral scale, can be easily and safely obtained by high-temperature etching of bulk SnS in a pure nitrogen gas atmosphere. These findings pave the way for device applications based on high-quality tin sulfide.
@article{arxiv.2411.18034,
title = {Selective synthesis of large-area monolayer tin sulfide from simple substances},
author = {Kazuki Koyama and Jun Ishihara and Takeshi Odagawa and Makito Aoyama and Chaoliang Zhang and Shiro Entani and Ye Fan and Atsuhiko Mori and Ibuki Kitakami and Sota Yamamoto and Toshihiro Omori and Yasuo Cho and Stephan Hofmann and Makoto Kohda},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2411.18034},
year = {2024}
}