X-ray photoemission electron microscopy of magnetic semiconductor V-WS2 combined with computational corrected aberration

Using soft-x-ray element-selective, time-of-flight photoemission electron microscopy (ToF-XPEEM), we characterize the spatial distribution and spectroscopic signatures of p-type vanadium dopant within the 2D semiconductor WS2. By combining with computational aberration correction, we achieved unprecedented 50-nm spatial resolution. Multilayer WS2 islands ranging from 3 - 20-micron in lateral size are grown via hybrid metal-organic chemical vapor deposition with nominal vanadium dopant concentrations ranging from 4 to 30 atom%. Combined with the soft x-ray energies of up to 1-keV at PETRA III - P04, ToF-XPEEM measurements reveal unique elemental spectroscopic signatures that reflect the stoichiometry within each island - which is important for optimizing the growth of these semiconductors. The spatial maps unravel the atomic positions of vanadium and tungsten within the 2D flakes at different doping concentration. Complementary full- field, hard x-ray photoelectron diffraction measured at PETRA III - P22 and Bloch wave calculations reveal the structural properties.