articleScienceFeb 5, 2026Closed access

Atomically resolved two-dimensional amorphous nuclei formed during MoS 2 chemical vapor deposition

University of Science and Technology Beijing · Beijing Institute of Technology · +3 more institutions

PubMed
Indexed incrossrefpubmed

Abstract

Control over the nucleation and growth of two-dimensional (2D) materials is essential for their scalable manufacturing. We report in situ atomic-scale observations of molybdenum disulfide (MoS 2 ) nucleation and growth through chemical vapor deposition (CVD) using environmental transmission electron microscopy. Coupled with molecular dynamics simulations, our observations reveal the formation of a 2D amorphous structure at the initial nucleation stage, which undergoes an in-plane structural ordering transition into a crystalline nucleus once a critical size is reached. We further captured nuclei merging and oriented attachment processes in the early growth stage, which likely contributed to 2D single-crystal…

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