Interlayer Coupling in Twisted WSe2/WS2 Bilayer Heterostructures Revealed by Optical Spectroscopy

Kai Wang, Bing Huang, Mengkun Tian, Frank Ceballos, Ming Wei Lin, Masoud Mahjouri-Samani, Abdelaziz Boulesbaa, Alexander A. Puretzky, Christopher M. Rouleau, Mina Yoon, Hui Zhao, Kai Xiao, Gerd Duscher, David B. Geohegan

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

269 Scopus citations

Abstract

van der Waals (vdW) heterostructures are promising building blocks for future ultrathin electronics. Fabricating vdW heterostructures by stamping monolayers at arbitrary angles provides an additional range of flexibility to tailor the resulting properties than could be expected by direct growth. Here, we report fabrication and comprehensive characterizations of WSe2/WS2 bilayer heterojunctions with various twist angles that were synthesized by artificially stacking monolayers of WS2 and WSe2 grown by chemical vapor deposition. After annealing the WSe2/WS2 bilayers, Raman spectroscopy reveals interlayer coupling with the appearance of a mode at 309.4 cm-1 that is sensitive to the number of WSe2 layers. This interlayer coupling is associated with substantial quenching of the intralayer photoluminescence. In addition, microabsorption spectroscopy of WSe2/WS2 bilayers revealed spectral broadening and shifts as well as a net ∼10% enhancement in integrated absorption strength across the visible spectrum with respect to the sum of the individual monolayer spectra. The observed broadening of the WSe2 A exciton absorption band in the bilayers suggests fast charge separation between the layers, which was supported by direct femtosecond pump-probe spectroscopy. Density functional calculations of the band structures of the bilayers at different twist angles and interlayer distances found robust type II heterojunctions at all twist angles, and predicted variations in band gap for particular atomistic arrangements. Although interlayer excitons were indicated using femtosecond pump-probe spectroscopy, photoluminescence and absorption spectroscopies did not show any evidence of them, suggesting that the interlayer exciton transition is very weak. However, the interlayer coupling for the WSe2/WS2 bilayer heterojunctions indicated by substantial PL quenching, enhanced absorption, and rapid charge transfer was found to be insensitive to the relative twist angle, indicating that stamping provides a robust approach to realize reliable optoelectronics.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)6612-6622
Number of pages11
JournalACS Nano
Volume10
Issue number7
DOIs
StatePublished - Jul 26 2016

Funding

This article has been authored by UTBattelle, LLC, under Contract No. DE-AC05-00OR22725 with the U.S. Department of Energy.

FundersFunder number
U.S. Department of Energy

    Keywords

    • charge transfer
    • interlayer coupling
    • twist angle
    • van der Waals heterostructures

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