  Structural, interfacial, optical, and transport properties of large-area MoS2
ultra-thin films on BN-buffered silicon substrates fabricated using magnetron
sputtering are investigated. A relatively simple growth strategy is
demonstrated here that simultaneously promotes superior interfacial and bulk
MoS2 properties. Few layers of MoS2 are established using X-ray reflectivity,
diffraction, ellipsometry, and Raman spectroscopy measurements. Layer-specific
modeling of optical constants shows very good agreement with first-principles
calculations. Conductivity measurements reveal that few-layer MoS2 films are
more conducting than many-layer films. Photo-conductivity measurements reveal
that the sputter deposited MoS2 films compare favorably with other large-area
methods. Our work illustrates that sputtering is a viable route for large-area
device applications using transition metal dichalcogenides.
