Exploring the Surface Oxidation and Environmental Instability of 2H-/1T'-MoTe Using Field Emission-Based Scanning Probe Lithography.

An unconventional approach for the resistless nanopatterning 2H- and 1T'-MoTe by means of scanning probe lithography is presented. A Fowler-Nordheim tunneling current of low energetic electrons (E = 30-60 eV) emitted from the tip of an atomic force microscopy (AFM) cantilever is utilized to induce a nanoscale oxidation on a MoTe nanosheet surface under ambient conditions. Due to the water solubility of the generated oxide, a direct pattern transfer into the MoTe surface can be achieved by a simple immersion of the sample in deionized water. The tip-grown oxide is characterized using Auger electron and Raman spectroscopy, revealing it consists of amorphous MoO /MoO as well as TeO /TeO . With the presented technology in combination with subsequent AFM imaging it is possible to demonstrate a strong anisotropic sensitivity of 1T'-/(T )-MoTe to aqueous environments. Finally the discussed approach is used to structure a nanoribbon field effect transistor out of a few-layer 2H-MoTe nanosheet.