No Arabic abstract
We report on preparation dependent properties observed in monolayer WS2 samples synthesized via chemical vapor deposition (CVD) on a variety of common substrates (Si/SiO2, sapphire, fused silica) as well as samples that were transferred from the growth substrate onto a new substrate. The as-grown CVD materials (as-WS2) exhibit distinctly different optical properties than transferred WS2 (x-WS2). In the case of CVD growth on Si/SiO2, following transfer to fresh Si/SiO2 there is a ~50 meV shift of the ground state exciton to higher emission energy in both photoluminescence emission and optical reflection. This shift is indicative of a reduction in tensile strain by ~0.25%. Additionally, the excitonic state in x-WS2 is easily modulated between neutral and charged exciton by exposure to moderate laser power, while such optical control is absent in as-WS2 for all growth substrates investigated. Finally, we observe dramatically different laser power-dependent behavior for as-grown and transferred WS2. These results demonstrate a strong sensitivity to sample preparation that is important for both a fundamental understanding of these novel materials as well as reliable reproduction of device properties.
We report on the superlubric sliding of monolayer tungsten disulfide (WS2) on epitaxial graphene (EG) on silicon carbide (SiC). WS2 single-crystalline flakes with lateral size of hundreds of nanometers are obtained via chemical vapor deposition (CVD) on EG and microscopic and diffraction analyses indicate that the WS2/EG stack is predominantly aligned with zero azimuthal rotation. Our experimental findings show that the WS2 flakes are prone to slide over graphene surfaces at room temperature when perturbed by a scanning probe microscopy (SPM) tip. Atomistic force field based molecular dynamics simulations indicate that through local physical deformation of the WS2 flake, the scanning tip releases enough energy to the flake to overcome the motion activation barrier and to trigger an ultra-low friction roto-translational displacement, that is superlubric. Experimental observations indicate that after the sliding, the WS2 flakes rest with a rotation of npi/3 with respect to graphene. Atomically resolved investigations show that the interface is atomically sharp and that the WS2 lattice is strain-free. These results help to shed light on nanotribological phenomena in van der Waals (vdW) heterostacks and suggest that the applicative potential of the WS2/graphene heterostructure can be extended by novel mechanical prospects.
The origin of the variation of photoluminescence (PL) spectra of monolayer tungsten disulfide (WS2) is investigated systematically. Dependence of the PL spectrum on the excitation power show that the relatively sharp component corresponds to excitons whereas the broader component at slightly lower energy corresponds to negatively charged trions. PL imaging and second harmonic generation measurements show that the trion signals are suppressed more than the exciton signals near the edges, thereby relatively enhancing the excitonic feature in the PL spectrum and that such relative enhancement of the exciton signals is more pronounced near approximately armchair edges. This effect is interpreted in terms of depletion of free electrons near the edges caused by structural defects and adsorption of electron acceptors such as oxygen atoms.
Bound quasiparticles, negatively charged trions and neutral excitons, are associated with the direct optical transitions at the K-points of the Brillouin zone for monolayer MoS$_2$. The change in the carrier concentration, surrounding dielectric constant and defect concentration can modulate the photoluminescence and Raman spectra. Here we show that exposing the monolayer MoS$_2$ in air to a modest laser intensity for a brief period of time enhances simultaneously the photoluminescence (PL) intensity associated with both trions and excitons, together with $sim$ 3 to 5 times increase of the Raman intensity of first and second order modes. The simultaneous increase of PL from trions and excitons cannot be understood based only on known-scenario of depletion of electron concentration in MoS$_2$ by adsorption of O$_2$ and H$_2$O molecules. This is explained by laser induced healing of defect states resulting in reduction of non-radiative Auger processes. This laser healing is corroborated by an observed increase of intensity of both the first order and second order 2LA(M) Raman modes by a factor of $sim$ 3 to 5. The A$_{1g}$ mode hardens by $sim$ 1.4 cm$^{-1}$ whereas the E$^1_{2g}$ mode softens by $sim$ 1 cm$^{-1}$. The second order 2LA(M) Raman mode at $sim$ 440 cm$^{-1}$ shows an increase in wavenumber by $sim$ 8 cm$^{-1}$ with laser exposure. These changes are a combined effect of change in electron concentrations and oxygen-induced lattice displacements.
Monolayer WS2 offers great promise for use in optical devices due to its direct bandgap and high photoluminescence intensity. While fundamental investigations can be performed on exfoliated material, large-area and high quality materials are essential for implementation of technological applications. In this work, we synthesize monolayer WS2 under various controlled conditions and characterize the films using photoluminescence, Raman and x-ray photoelectron spectroscopies. We demonstrate that the introduction of hydrogen to the argon carrier gas dramatically improves the optical quality and increases the growth area of WS2, resulting in films exhibiting mm2 coverage. The addition of hydrogen more effectively reduces the WO3 precursor and protects against oxidative etching of the synthesized monolayers. The stoichiometric WS2 monolayers synthesized using Ar+H2 carrier gas exhibit superior optical characteristics, with photoluminescence emission full width half maximum values below 40 meV and emission intensities nearly an order of magnitude higher than films synthesized in a pure Ar environment.
Atomically thin two-dimensional molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) sheets have attracted much attention due to their potential for future electronic applications. They not only present the best planar electrostatic control in a device, but also lend themselves readily for dielectric engineering. In this work, we experimentally investigated the dielectric effect on the Raman and photoluminescence (PL) spectra of monolayer MoS2 by comparing samples with and without HfO2 on top by atomic layer deposition (ALD). Based on considerations of the thermal, doping, strain and dielectric screening influences, it is found that the red shift in the Raman spectrum largely stems from modulation doping of MoS2 by the ALD HfO2, and the red shift in the PL spectrum is most likely due to strain imparted on MoS2 by HfO2. Our work also suggests that due to the intricate dependence of band structure of monolayer MoS2 on strain, one must be cautious to interpret its Raman and PL spectroscopy.