Thickness determination of MoS2, MoSe2, WS2 and WSe2 on transparent stamps used for deterministic transfer of 2D materials

Abstract: Here, we propose a method to determine the thickness of the most common transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDCs) placed on the surface of transparent stamps, used for the deterministic placement of two-dimensional materials, by analyzing the red, green and blue channels of transmission-mode optical microscopy images of the samples. In particular, the blue channel transmittance shows a large and monotonic thickness dependence, making it a very convenient probe of the flake thickness. The method proved to be robust given the small flake-to-flake variation and the insensitivity to doping changes of MoS2. We also tested the method for MoSe2, WS2 and WSe2. These results provide a reference guide to identify the number of layers of this family of materials on transparent substrates only using optical microscopy.