Growth of ReS2 thin films by pulsed laser deposition

Highlights: • Large area epitaxial (10 × 10 mm²) growth of ReS₂ thin film by PLD • Improved quality ReS₂ Thin film on MoS₂ template compared to the sapphire substrate • Truncated ReS₂ thin films possess optical emission peaks corresponding to both monolayer and multilayer -- Abstract: We present results on growth of ReS₂ thin film both on c plane sapphire substrate and MoS₂ template by pulsed laser deposition (PLD). Films tend to grow with (0001)ReS₂ ⊥ (0001)Al₂O₃ and (0001)ReS₂ ⊥ (0001)MoS₂ ∥ (0001)Al₂O₃ at deposition temperature below 300 °C. Films are polycrystalline grown at temperature above 300 °C. The smoothness and epitaxial quality of the films are significantly improved when grown on MoS₂ template compared to sapphire substrate. The results show that PLD is suitable to grow ReS₂ thin film over large area (10 × 10 mm²) for practical device application.