{"paper":{"title":"Seed Layer Engineering for Effective Charge Transfer Doping of MoS$_2$ Transistors","license":"http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/","headline":"The thickness and oxygen content during deposition of a Ta seed layer control both disorder and charge-transfer doping at the HfOx-MoS2 interface, directly setting transistor threshold voltage and on-current.","cross_cats":[],"primary_cat":"cond-mat.mtrl-sci","authors_text":"Bach Nguyen, Cesar Javier Lockhart de la Rosa, Chang Niu, Dennis Lin, Dmitry Zemlyanov, Francesca Iacopi, Himani Jawa, Joerg Appenzeller, Pierre Morin, Rana Yuvraj, Sahej Sharma, Shalini Tripathi, Shao-Heng Yang, Shiva Radhakrishnan, Thomas E. Beechem, Zhihong Chen","submitted_at":"2026-04-20T02:33:40Z","abstract_excerpt":"Integrating two-dimensional semiconductors such as MoS$_2$ with dielectric materials remains a central challenge for their use in future logic technologies. While seed layers are typically introduced to promote dielectric nucleation and adhesion, we show that they also critically govern charge-transfer doping and, in turn, transistor performance. Back-gated monolayer MoS$_2$ transistors passivated on their top-surface with a Ta-seed/HfO$_x$ dielectric stack were fabricated and characterized electrically and physically using Raman, photoluminescence, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopies. Thre"},"claims":{"count":4,"items":[{"kind":"strongest_claim","text":"The seed layer both introduces disorder into the MoS2 channel and modifies the interfacial charge environment controlling charge transfer between HfOx and MoS2. Better performance was obtained with ultrathin 0.2 nm Ta seed layers deposited under oxygen-poor conditions, which limit deposition-induced damage while facilitating charge transfer.","source":"verdict.strongest_claim","status":"machine_extracted","claim_id":"C1","attestation":"unclaimed"},{"kind":"weakest_assumption","text":"That the strong correlations between seed thickness/conditions, electrical metrics, and spectroscopic signatures are caused by seed-induced disorder and interfacial charge transfer rather than other uncontrolled variables in fabrication or measurement.","source":"verdict.weakest_assumption","status":"machine_extracted","claim_id":"C2","attestation":"unclaimed"},{"kind":"one_line_summary","text":"Ultrathin 0.2 nm Ta seed layers deposited under oxygen-poor conditions optimize MoS2 transistor performance by limiting disorder while enabling effective charge transfer doping from the HfOx dielectric.","source":"verdict.one_line_summary","status":"machine_extracted","claim_id":"C3","attestation":"unclaimed"},{"kind":"headline","text":"The thickness and oxygen content during deposition of a Ta seed layer control both disorder and charge-transfer doping at the HfOx-MoS2 interface, directly setting transistor threshold voltage and on-current.","source":"verdict.pith_extraction.headline","status":"machine_extracted","claim_id":"C4","attestation":"unclaimed"}],"snapshot_sha256":"1e8b5a82f3dfabad73abda6156289dfa59734ebe3857e748c7baaef7bd79dd46"},"source":{"id":"2604.17729","kind":"arxiv","version":2},"verdict":{"id":"9549e540-b151-4da9-9bf5-b2ee97ca0408","model_set":{"reader":"grok-4.3"},"created_at":"2026-05-10T04:53:39.937438Z","strongest_claim":"The seed layer both introduces disorder into the MoS2 channel and modifies the interfacial charge environment controlling charge transfer between HfOx and MoS2. Better performance was obtained with ultrathin 0.2 nm Ta seed layers deposited under oxygen-poor conditions, which limit deposition-induced damage while facilitating charge transfer.","one_line_summary":"Ultrathin 0.2 nm Ta seed layers deposited under oxygen-poor conditions optimize MoS2 transistor performance by limiting disorder while enabling effective charge transfer doping from the HfOx dielectric.","pipeline_version":"pith-pipeline@v0.9.0","weakest_assumption":"That the strong correlations between seed thickness/conditions, electrical metrics, and spectroscopic signatures are caused by seed-induced disorder and interfacial charge transfer rather than other uncontrolled variables in fabrication or measurement.","pith_extraction_headline":"The thickness and oxygen content during deposition of a Ta seed layer control both disorder and charge-transfer doping at the HfOx-MoS2 interface, directly setting transistor threshold voltage and on-current."},"integrity":{"clean":true,"summary":{"advisory":0,"critical":0,"by_detector":{},"informational":0},"endpoint":"/pith/2604.17729/integrity.json","findings":[],"available":true,"detectors_run":[],"snapshot_sha256":"c28c3603d3b5d939e8dc4c7e95fa8dfce3d595e45f758748cecf8e644a296938"},"references":{"count":0,"sample":[],"resolved_work":0,"snapshot_sha256":"258153158e38e3291e3d48162225fcdb2d5a3ed65a07baac614ab91432fd4f57","internal_anchors":0},"formal_canon":{"evidence_count":0,"snapshot_sha256":"258153158e38e3291e3d48162225fcdb2d5a3ed65a07baac614ab91432fd4f57"},"author_claims":{"count":0,"strong_count":0,"snapshot_sha256":"258153158e38e3291e3d48162225fcdb2d5a3ed65a07baac614ab91432fd4f57"},"builder_version":"pith-number-builder-2026-05-17-v1"}