  Developing novel techniques for depositing transition metal dichalcogenides
is crucial for the industrial adoption of 2D materials in optoelectronics. In
this work, we have demonstrated lateral growth of molybdenum disulfide (MoS2)
over an insulating surface using electrochemical deposition. By fabricating a
novel electrode structure, we can connect electrodeposited MoS2 grown from TiN
electrodes on opposite sides across an insulating substrate, thus forming a
lateral device structure using just one lithography and deposition step. Using
a variety of characterisation techniques, we have shown that the lateral growth
rate of MoS2 is over 20 times higher than its vertical growth rate. We
performed electronic and photo-response measurements on the device structures
and confirmed that our material behaves like semiconducting MoS2, confirming
its potential for photodetection applications. This result paves the way
towards developing the lateral growth electrodeposition technique for other
transition metal dichalcogenide 2D materials as well as their lateral
heterostructures.
