Using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), atomic force microscopy (AFM) and Raman spectroscopy techniques we investigate the incorporation of Manganese (Mn) in monolayer (1L)-MoS$_2$ grown on sapphire substrates by microcavity based chemical vapor deposition (CVD) method. These layers are coated with different amount of Mn by pulsed laser deposition (PLD) technique and temperature dependent photo-luminescence (PL) spectroscopic study has helped us in understanding how such deposition affects the dynamics of excitonic recombination in this system. The study further reveals two distinctly different Mn-incorporation regimes. Below a certain critical deposition amount of Mn, thin Mn-coating with large area coverage is found on MoS$_2$ layers and in this regime, substitution of Mo ions by Mn is detected through XPS. Dewetting takes place when Mn-deposition crosses the critical mark, which results in the formation of Mn-droplets on MoS$_2$ layers. In this regime, substitutional incorporation of Mn is suppressed, while the Raman study suggests an enhancement of disorder in the lattice with the Mn-deposition time. From PL investigation, it has been found that the increase of the amount of Mn-deposition not only enhances the density of non-radiative recombination channels for the excitons but also raises the barrier height for such recombination to take place. The study attributes these non-radiative transitions to certain Mo related defects (either Mo-vacancies or distorted Mo-S bonds), which are believed to be generated in large numbers during Mn-droplet formation stage as a result of the withdrawal of Mn ions from the Mo-substitutional sites.
Materials combining the optoelectronic functionalities of semiconductors with control of the spin degree of freedom are highly sought after for the advancement of quantum technology devices. Here, we report the paramagnetic Ruddlesden-Popper hybrid perovskite Mn:(PEA)2PbI4 (PEA = phenethylammonium) in which the interaction of isolated Mn2+ ions with magnetically brightened excitons leads to circularly polarized photoluminescence. Using a combination of superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID) magnetometry and magneto-optical experiments, we find that the Brillouin-shaped polarizatio…
Large-area growth of continuous transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDCs) layers is a prerequisite to transfer their exceptional electronic and optical properties into practical devices. It still represents an open issue nowadays. Electric and magnetic doping of TMDC layers to develop basic devices such as p-n junctions or diluted magnetic semiconductors for spintronic applications are also an important field of investigation. Here, we have developed two different techniques to grow MoSe$_2$ mono- and multi-layers on SiO$_2$/Si substrates over large areas. First, we co-deposited Mo and Se atoms…
Based on the Bethe-Salpeter equation eigenstates, we present a first-principles many-body formalism for calculating the two-photon absorption (TPA) coefficient of semiconductors. We apply this formalism to calculate the TPA spectra of MoS2 and WS2 monolayers. The all-electron full-potential linearised augmented-plane wave based functions are used for solving the Bethe-Salpeter equation. The calculated spectra are in good agreement with the available experimental ones for WS2 monolayer. The calculated TPA spectra exhibit significant excitonic effects when compared to those based on the independ…
We present converged ab-initio calculations of the optical absorption spectra of single-layer, bi-layer, and bulk MoS$_2$. Both the quasiparticle-energy calculations (on the level of the GW approximation) and the calculation of the absorption spectra (on the level of the Bethe-Salpeter equation) explicitly include spin-orbit coupling, using the full spinorial Kohn-Sham wave-functions as input. Without excitonic effects, the absorption spectra would have the form of a step-function, corresponding to the joint-density of states of a parabolic band-dispersion in 2D. This profile is deformed by a …
Excitons dominate the optics of atomically-thin transition metal dichalcogenides and 2D van der Waals heterostructures. Interlayer 2D excitons, with an electron and a hole residing in different layers, form rapidly in heterostructures either via direct charge transfer or via Coulomb interactions that exchange energy between layers. Here, we report prominent intertube excitonic effects in quasi-1D van der Waals heterostructures consisting of C/BN/MoS$_2$ core/shell/skin nanotubes. Remarkably, under pulsed infrared excitation of excitons in the semiconducting CNTs we observed a rapid (sub-picose…
The excitonic homogeneous linewidth of an exfoliated monolayer MoSe$_2$ encapsulated in hexagonal boron nitride is directly measured using multidimensional coherent spectroscopy with micron spatial resolution. The linewidth is 0.26 $\pm$ 0.02 meV, corresponding to a dephasing time $T_2 \approx$ 2.5 ps, which is almost half the narrowest reported values for non-encapsulated MoSe$_2$ flakes. We attribute the narrowed linewidth to Coulomb screening by the encapsulated material and suppression of non-radiative processes. Through direct measurements of encapsulated and non-encapsulated monolayers, …
We investigate the excitonic spectrum of MoS$_2$ monolayers and calculate its optical absorption properties over a wide range of energies. Our approach takes into account the anomalous screening in two dimensions and the presence of a substrate, both cast by a suitable effective Keldysh potential. We solve the Bethe-Salpeter equation using as a basis a Slater-Koster tight-binding model parameterized to fit ab initio MoS$_2$ band structure calculations. The resulting optical conductivity is in good quantitative agreement with existing measurements up to ultraviolet energies. We establish that t…
Exciton intervalley scattering, annihilation and relaxation dynamics, and diffusive transport in a monolayer transition metal dichalcogenides are central to the functionality of devices based on them. This motivated us to investigate these properties in exfoliated high-quality monolayer MoSe2 using heterodyned nonlinear four-wave-mixing transient grating spectroscopy. While free exciton excitations are found to be long-lived (~230 ps), an extremely fast intervalley scattering ( less than 120 fs) is observed leading to a negligible valley polarization, consistent with steady state photoluminesc…
We present first-principles calculations of the optical response of monolayer molybdenum disulfide employing the GW-Bethe Salpeter equation (GW-BSE) approach including self-energy, excitonic, and electron-phonon effects. We show that monolayer MoS2 possesses a large and diverse number of strongly bound excitonic states with novel k-space characteristics that were not previously seen experimentally or theoretically. The absorption spectrum is shown to be dominated by excitonic states with binding energy close to $1$~eV and by strong electron-phonon broadening in the visible to ultra-violet rang…
The electronic structure of two-dimensional (2D) materials are inherently prone to environmental perturbations, which may pose significant challenges to their applications in electronic or optoelectronic devices. A 2D material couples with its environment through two mechanisms: local chemical coupling and nonlocal dielectric screening effects. The local chemical coupling is often difficult to predict or control experimentally. Nonlocal dielectric screening, on the other hand, can be tuned by choosing the substrates or layer thickness in a controllable manner. Therefore, a compelling 2D electr…
We report ab initio calculations of the dielectric function of six mono- and bilayer molybdenum dichalcogenides based in a Bethe Salpether equation+G$_0$W$_0$ ansatz, focussing on the excitonic transitions dominating the absorption spectrum up to an excitation energy of 3\,eV. Our calculations suggest that switching chalcogen atoms and the strength of interlayer interactions should affect the detailed composition of the high 'C' peaks in experimental optical spectra of molybdenum dichalcogenides and cause a significant spin-orbit-splitting of the contributing excitonic transitions in monolayer…
We theoretically investigate excitons in MoS$_2$ monolayers in an applied in-plane electric field. Tight-binding and Bethe-Salpeter equation calculations predict a quadratic Stark shift, of the order of a few meV for fields of 10 V/$μ$m, in the linear absorption spectra. The spectral weight of the main exciton peaks decreases by a few percent with an increasing electric field due to the exciton field ionization into free carriers as reflected in the exciton wave functions. Subpicosecond exciton decay lifetimes at fields of a few tens of V/$μ$m could be utilized in solar energy harvesting and p…
The resonance effects on the Raman spectra from 5 to 900 cm-1 of few-layer MoS2 thin films up to 14-layers were investigated by using six excitation energies. For the main first-order Raman peaks, the intensity maximum occurs at ~2.8 eV for single layer and at ~2.5 eV for few-layer MoS2, which correspond to the band-gap energy. At the excitation energy of 1.96 eV, several anomalous behaviors are observed. Many second-order peaks are anomalously enhanced even though the main first-order peaks are not enhanced. In the low-frequency region (<100 cm-1), a broad peak centered at ~38 cm-1 and its se…
The strong light matter interaction and the valley selective optical selection rules make monolayer (ML) MoS2 an exciting 2D material for fundamental physics and optoelectronics applications. But so far optical transition linewidths even at low temperature are typically as large as a few tens of meV and contain homogenous and inhomogeneous contributions. This prevented in-depth studies, in contrast to the better-characterized ML materials MoSe2 and WSe2. In this work we show that encapsulation of ML MoS2 in hexagonal boron nitride can efficiently suppress the inhomogeneous contribution to the …
The magneto-optical response of monolayer transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs), including excitonic effects, is studied using a nanoribbon geometry. We compute the diagonal optical conductivity and the Hall conductivity. Comparing the excitonic optical Hall conductivity to results obtained in the independent particle approximation, we find an increase in the amplitude corresponding to one order of magnitude when excitonic effects are included. The Hall conductivities are used to calculate Faraday rotation spectra for MoS2 and WSe2. Finally, we have also calculated the diamagnetic shift of t…
Exciton enhanced nonlinear optical responses in monolayer h-BN and MoS2: Insight from first-principles exciton-state coupling formalism and calculations
University of California at Berkeley（加州大学伯克利分校）；Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory（劳伦斯伯克利国家实验室）；National Center of Theoretical Physics（国家理论物理中心）；Institute of Atomic and Molecular Sciences, Academia Sinica（中央研究院原子与分子科学研究所）
The excitonic radiative recombination of intercalated Cl2 molecules for two different polytypes 2H-MoS2 and 3R-MoS2 layered crystals are presented. The structure of the excitonic emission is unique and provides a robust experimental signature of crystal polytype investigated. This result is confirmed by X-ray diffraction analysis and DFT electronic band structure calculations. Thus, the bound exciton emission provides a nondestructive fingerprint for the reliable identification of the polytype of MoS2 layered crystals.
Intrinsic electrical and excitonic properties of monolayer transition metal dichalcogenides are studied on CYTOP fluoropolymer substrates with greatly suppressed unintentional doping and dielectric screening. Ambipolar transport behavior is observed in monolayer WS2 by applying solid states backdates. The excitonic properties of monolayer MoS2 and WS2 are determined by intricate interplays between the bandage renormalization, Pauli blocking and carrier screening against carrier doping.
Strontium titanate SrTiO$_3$ is one of the most studied and paradigmatic transition metal oxides. Recently, a breakthrough has been achieved with the fabrication of freestanding SrTiO$_3$ ultrathin films down to the monolayer limit. However, the many-body effects on the quasiparticle and optical properties of monolayer SrTiO$_3$ remain unexplored. Using state-of-the-art many-body perturbation theory in the GW approximation combined with the Bethe-Salpeter equation, we study the quasiparticle band structure, optical and excitonic properties of monolayer SrTiO$_3$. We show that quasiparticle cor…
We study experimentally and theoretically the effects of disorder, nonlinear screening, and magnetism in semiconductor heterostructures containing a $δ$-layer of Mn, where the charge carriers are confined within a quantum well and hence both ferromagnetism and transport are two-dimensional (2D) and differ qualitatively from their bulk counterparts. Anomalies in the electrical resistance observed in both metallic and insulating structures can be interpreted as a signature of significant ferromagnetic correlations. The insulating samples turn out to be the most interesting as they can give us va…
The Li2SiO3 compound, a ternary electrolyte compound of Lithium-ion based batteries, exhibits unique geometric and band structures, an atom-dominated energy spectrum, charge densities distributions, atom and orbital-projected density of states, and strong optical responses. The state-of-the-art analysis, based on an ab-initio simulation, have successfully confirmed the concise physical/chemical picture and the orbital bonding in Li-O and Si-O bonds. Additionally, the unusual optical response behavior includes a large redshift of the onset frequency due to the extremely strong excitonic effect,…
Atomically thin transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) are direct-gap semiconductors with strong light-matter and Coulomb interaction. The latter accounts for tightly bound excitons, which dominate the optical properties of these technologically promising materials. Besides the optically accessible bright excitons, these systems exhibit a variety of dark excitonic states. They are not visible in optical spectra, but can strongly influence the coherence lifetime and the linewidth of the emission from bright exciton states. In a recent study, an experimental evidence for the existence of such d…
Optical excitation serves as a powerful approach to control the electronic structure of layered Van der Waals materials via many-body screening effects, induced by photoexcited free carriers, or via light-driven coherence, such as optical Stark and Bloch-Siegert effects. Although theoretical work has also pointed to an exotic mechanism of renormalizing band structure via excitonic correlations in bound electron-hole pairs (excitons), experimental observation of such exciton-driven band renormalization and the full extent of their implications is still lacking, largely due to the limitations of…
MA2Z4 monolayers form a new class of hexagonal non-centrosymmetric materials hosting extraordinary spin-valley physics. While only two compounds (MoSi2N4 and WSi2N4) were recently synthesized, theory predicts interesting (opto)electronic properties of a whole new family of such two-dimensional materials. Here, the chemical trends of band gaps and spin-orbit splittings of bands in selected MSi2Z4 (M = Mo, W; Z = N, P, As, Sb) compounds are studied from first-principles. Effective Bethe-Salpeter-equation-based calculations reveal high exciton binding energies. Evolution of excitonic energies und…
We analyze the dielectric-function spectra of low dimensional transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDCs) using a fully analytical model of the complex dielectric function that is applicable in fractional dimensional space. We extract the dimensionalities of the $A$ and $B$ excitons as well as their Lorentzian broadening widths by fitting the model to experimental data in the spectral range of photon energies (1.5 - 3 eV). Our results show the significant contribution of the lowest ground exciton state to the dielectric properties of exemplary monolayer materials (MoS$_2$, MoSe$_2$ and WSe$_2$). …
We calculate the excitation spectrum of single-layer MoS$_2$ at several hydrogen coverages by using a method based on first-principles Density-Matrix Time-Dependent Density-Functional Theory (TDDFT). Our results show that the fully hydrogenated system is metallic, while in the low-coverage limit the spectrum of single-layer MoS$_2$ includes spin-polarized partially filled localized mid-gap states. These states arise from s-orbitals of H atoms which make a tilted bond with the surface S atoms. The calculated absorption spectrum of the system reveals standard excitonic peaks, which correspond to…
We calculate the optical properties of a series of passivated non-stoichiometric CdSe clusters using two first-principles approaches: time-dependent density functional theory within the local density approximation, and by solving the Bethe-Salpeter equation for optical excitations with the GW approximation for the self-energy. We analyze the character of optical excitations leading to the first low-energy peak in the absorption cross-section of these clusters. Within time-dependent density functional theory, we find that the lowest-energy excitation is mostly a single-level to single-level tra…
Alloy engineering of excitonic properties in TMD monolayers
Foundation for Research and Technology-Hellas（希腊研究与技术基金会）；Univ Toulouse, INSA, CNRS, LPCNO（图卢兹大学、国立应用科学学院、法国国家科学研究中心、低压与纳米电子物理实验室）；Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Crete（克里特大学材料科学与工程系）；Research Center for Materials Nanoarchitectonics, National Institute for Materials Science（日本国立材料研究所材料纳米架构研究中心）；Research Center for Electronic and Optical Materials, National Institute for Materials Science（日本国立材料研究所电子与光学材料研究中心）；Department of Inorganic Chemistry, University of Chemistry and Technology Prague（布拉格化工大学无机化学系）；Key Laboratory of Advanced Optoelectronic Quantum Architecture and Measurement, Ministry of Education, School of Physics and Beijing Key Laboratory of Nanophotonics and Ultrafine Optoelectronic Systems, Beijing Institute of Technology（北京理工大学物理学院教育部先进光电子量子结构与测量重点实验室及北京市纳米光子学与超精细光电系统重点实验室）；Institut Universitaire de France（法兰西学院）
A self-consistent scheme for the calculations of the interacting groundstate and the near bandgap optical spectra of mono- and multilayer transition-metal-dichalcogenide systems is presented. The approach combines a dielectric model for the Coulomb interaction potential in a multilayer environment, gap equations for the renormalized groundstate, and the Dirac-Wannier-equation to determine the excitonic properties. To account for the extension of the individual monolayers perpendicular to their basic plane, an effective thickness parameter in the Coulomb interaction potential is introduced. Num…
Tailoring the photoluminescence (PL) properties in two-dimensional (2D) molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) crystals using external factors is critical for its use in valleytronic, nanophotonic and optoelectronic applications. Although significant effort has been devoted towards enhancing or manipulating the excitonic emission in MoS2 monolayers, the excitonic emission in few-layers MoS2 has been largely unexplored. Here, we put forward a novel nano-heterojunction system, prepared with a non-lithographic process, to enhance and control such emission. It is based on the incorporation of few-layers MoS2…
Lead iodide perovskites have attracted considerable interest in the upcoming photovoltaic technologies and optoelectronic devices. Therefore, an accurate theoretical description of the electronic and optical properties especially to understand the excitonic effects in this class of materials is of scientific and practical interest. However, despite several theoretical research endeavours in past, the most accurate analysis of the key electronic parameters for solar cell performance, such as optical properties, effective mass, exciton binding energy (E$_B$) and the radiative exciton lifetime ar…
Monolayer transition metal dichalcogenide (TMDC) semiconductors exhibit strong excitonic optical resonances which serve as a microscopic, non-invasive probe into their fundamental properties. Like the hydrogen atom, such excitons can exhibit an entire Rydberg series of resonances. Excitons have been extensively studied in most TMDCs (MoS$_2$, MoSe$_2$, WS$_2$ and WSe$_2$), but detailed exploration of excitonic phenomena has been lacking in the important TMDC material molybdenum ditelluride (MoTe$_2$). Here, we report an experimental investigation of excitonic luminescence properties of monolay…
Phosphorene, a new elemental two dimensional (2D) material recently isolated by mechanical exfoliation, holds the feature of a direct band gap of around 2.0 eV, overcoming graphene's weaknesses (zero band gap) to realize the potential application in optoelectronic devices. Constructing van der Waals heterostructures is an efficient approach to modulate the band structure, to advance the charge separation efficiency, and thus to optimize the optoelectronic properties. Here, we theoretically investigated three type-II heterostructures based on perfect phosphorene and its doped monolayers interfa…
Light-emitting diodes are of importance for lighting, displays, optical interconnects, logic and sensors. Hence the development of new systems that allow improvements in their efficiency, spectral properties, compactness and integrability could have significant ramifications. Monolayer transition metal dichalcogenides have recently emerged as interesting candidates for optoelectronic applications due to their unique optical properties. Electroluminescence has already been observed from monolayer MoS2 devices. However, the electroluminescence efficiency was low and the linewidth broad due both …
Atomically thin two-dimensional (2D) transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDCs) are attractive materials for next generation nanoscale optoelectronic applications. Understanding nanoscale optical behavior of the edges and grain boundaries of synthetically grown TMDCs is vital for optimizing their optoelectronic properties. Elucidating the nanoscale optical properties of 2D materials through far-field optical microscopy requires a diffraction-limited optical beam diameter sub-micron in size. Here we present our experimental work on spatial photoluminescence (PL) scanning of large size ( $\geq 50$…
We systematically measure the dielectric function of atomically thin MoS2 films with different layer numbers and demonstrate that excitonic effects play a dominant role in the dielectric function when the films are less than 5-7 layers thick. The dielectric function shows an anomalous dependence on the layer number. It decreases with the layer number increasing when the films are less than 5-7 layers thick but turns to increase with the layer number for thicker films. We show that this is because the excitonic effect is very strong in the thin MoS2 films and its contribution to the dielectric …
The optical spectra of two-dimensional (2D) periodic systems provide a challenge for time-dependent density-functional theory (TDDFT) because of the large excitonic effects in these materials. In this work we explore how accurately these spectra can be described within a pure Kohn-Sham time-dependent density-functional framework, i.e., a framework in which no theory beyond Kohn-Sham density-functional theory, such as $GW$, is required to correct the Kohn-Sham gap. To achieve this goal we adapted a recent approach we developed for the optical spectra of 3D systems [Cavo, Berger, Romaniello, Phy…
Many-Body effects beyond excitons in second-harmonic generation of monolayer MoS$_{2}$
University of the Basque Country UPV/EHU（巴斯克大学）；Centro de Física de Materiales, Universidad del País Vasco UPV/EHU（巴斯克大学材料物理中心）；Ikerbasque Foundation（伊卡巴斯基基金会）；Donostia International Physics Center（圣塞巴斯蒂安国际物理中心）
Hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) has been attracting great attention because of its strong excitonic effects. Taking into account few-layer systems, we investigate theoretically the effects of the number of layers on quasiparticle energies, absorption spectra, and excitonic states, placing particular focus on the Davydov splitting of the lowest bound excitons. We describe how the inter-layer interaction as well as the variation in electronic screening as a function of layer number $N$ affects the electronic and optical properties. Using both \textit{ab initio} simulations and a tight-binding mode…
We present experimental and theoretical results on the high-quality single-layer MoS$_{2}$ which reveal the fine structure of charged excitons, i.e., trions. In the emission spectra we resolve and identify two trion peaks, T$_{1}$ and T$_{2}$, resembling the pair of singlet and triplet trion peaks (T$_S$ and T$_{T}$) in tungsten-based materials. However, in polarization-dependent photoluminescence measurements we identify these peaks as novel intra- and inter-valley singlet trions, constituting the trion fine structure distinct from that already known in bright and dark 2D materials with large…
Spontaneous Polarization Suppression of Exciton-Exciton Annihilation in 3R-Stacked MoS$_2$ Bilayers
Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences, Oak Ridge National Laboratory（橡树岭国家实验室纳米相材料科学中心）；Honda Research Institute USA Inc.（本田美国研究院）；University of Tennessee at Knoxville（田纳西大学诺克斯维尔分校）
Excitons in thin layers of semiconducting transition metal dichalcogenides are highly subject to the strongly modified Coulomb electron-hole interaction in these materials. Therefore, they do not follow the model system of a two-dimensional hydrogen atom. We investigate experimentally and theoretically excitonic properties in both the monolayer (ML) and the bilayer (BL) of MoSe$_2$ encapsulated in hexagonal BN. The measured magnetic field evolutions of the reflectance contrast spectra of the MoSe$_2$ ML and BL allow us to determine $g$-factors of intralayer A and B excitons, as well as the $g$…
Layer-parity-defined surface polarization in Nb$_3$Cl$_8$ for excitonic modulation at van der Waals interfaces
Peking University（北京大学）；Chinese Academy of Sciences（中国科学院）；University of Chinese Academy of Sciences（中国科学院大学）；National Institute for Materials Science（国立材料研究所）；South China Normal University（华南师范大学）；Liaoning Academy of Materials（辽宁省材料研究院）；ShanghaiTech University（上海科技大学）；University of Science and Technology of China（中国科学技术大学）；Songshan Lake Materials Laboratory（松山湖材料实验室）
The optical response of semiconducting monolayer transition-metal dichalcogenides (TMDCs) is dominated by strongly bound excitons that are stable even at room temperature. However, substrate-related effects such as screening and disorder in currently available specimens mask many anticipated physical phenomena and limit device applications of TMDCs. Here, we demonstrate that that these undesirable effects are strongly suppressed in suspended devices. Extremely robust (photogain >1,000) and fast (response time <1ms) photoresponse combined with the high quality of our devices allow us to study, …
