Fig. 1: Formation of MoS₂–PtTe₂ lateral heterostructure by two-step growth.

a Schematic of the growth process for the PtTe₂ flakes at a growth temperature of 700 °C. b Schematic of the growth process of MoS₂ along the edge of PtTe₂. The insets of (a) and (b) show the representative false-colored scanning electron microscopy (SEM) image of the synthesized PtTe₂ flakes and PtTe₂-MoS₂ heterostructures on SiO₂/Si substrate. c Raman spectra of multilayer PtTe₂ flakes displaying strong E_g and A_1g signals (vertical dashed lines) without any substantial differences up to 900 °C annealing under UHV conditions. d Benchmark plots of metallic TMDs such as 1T’-WTe₂^31,35, 2H-NbSe₂^32,37, 1T’-MoTe₂^33,38, 1T-TaS₂^36,39, and 1T’-MoS₂³⁴ with respect to the room-temperature electrical resistivity (ρ) and the endurance temperature, T, that the material can tolerate without structural degradation. The endurance T of the metallic TMDs were characterized under vacuum (solid) or Ar atmosphere (binned). e Confocal Raman spectrum captured at the heterojunction’s interface, PtTe₂, and MoS₂ flakes. The vertical lines indicate E_g and A_1g modes from PtTe₂, and E_2g and A_1g modes from MoS₂. f Atomic force microscopy (AFM) height profile along the red line displayed in the corresponding AFM image (inset, with a scale bar of 2.5 μm; the MoS₂ boundary is indicated as white dashed lines.), indicating the synthesized MoS₂ forms a monolayer (H ≈ 0.78 nm) while the PtTe₂ forms multiple layers (thickness, H ≈ 28 nm). g, h X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) analysis of the PtTe₂-MoS₂ heterostructure. For comparison, the spectra of bare MoS₂ grown independently on the substrate and those of Ti-deposited MoS₂ are displayed. The XPS profiles of the for Mo 3d, and S 2p regions are shown in (g) and (h), respectively. The XPS Mo 3d_3/2, Mo 3d_5/2, S 2p_1/2, and S 2p_2/3 peaks are specified by dashed lines. i, j Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) investigations of the heterostructure consisting of a multilayer PtTe₂ with a monolayer MoS₂. i Selected area electron diffraction (SAED) patterns of the MoS₂-PtTe₂ heterostructure, showing the orientationally aligned (100) and (110) planes of each material, indicating the epitaxial growth of the MoS₂. j (left) High-angle annular dark-field scanning-TEM (HAADF-STEM) image demonstrating the atomic arrangements at the MoS₂-PtTe₂ heterojunction. (right) Schematic of the lateral heteroepitaxy aligned to the <100> direction.