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Intrinsic excitonic emission and valley Zeeman splitting in epitaxial MS2 (M = Mo and W) monolayers on hexagonal boron nitride

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Abstract

Two-dimensional (2D) semiconductors, represented by 2D transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs), exhibit rich valley physics due to strong spin-orbit/spin-valley coupling. The most common way to probe such 2D systems is to utilize optical methods, which can monitor light emissions from various excitonic states and further help in understanding the physics behind such phenomena. Therefore, 2D TMDs with good optical quality are in great demand. Here, we report a method to directly grow epitaxial WS2 and MoS2 monolayers on hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) flakes with a high yield and high optical quality; these monolayers show better intrinsic light emission features than exfoliated monolayers from natural crystals. For the first time, the valley Zeeman splitting of WS2 and MoS2 monolayers on hBN has been visualized and systematically investigated. This study paves a new way to produce high optical quality WS2 and MoS2 monolayers and to exploit their intrinsic properties in a multitude of applications.

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Acknowledgements

This work is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 61774040, 11774170, and 61774042), the Opening project of State Key Laboratory of Functional Materials for Informatics (Shanghai Institute of Microsystem and Information Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences), the National Young 1000 Talent Plan of China, the Shanghai Municipal Natural Science Foundation (Nos. 16ZR1402500, 17ZR1446500, and 17ZR1446600), NTU Start-up grant M4080513, Singapore Ministry of Education (MOE) Tier 1 RG199/17, and Shanghai Pujiang Program (No. 16PJ1401000). C. C. thanks Dr. Ute Schmidt from WITec Company for AFM measurement.

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  1. Chunxiao Cong, Chenji Zou, and Bingchen Cao contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of ASIC and System, School of Information Science and Technology, Fudan University, Shanghai, 200433, China

    Chunxiao Cong, Zhijun Qiu, Laigui Hu, Pengfei Tian & Ran Liu

  2. Division of Physics and Applied Physics, School of Physical and Mathematical Sciences, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, 637371, Singapore

    Chenji Zou, Bingchen Cao, Lishu Wu, Jingzhi Shang & Ting Yu

  3. State Key Laboratory of Functional Materials for Informatics, Shanghai Institute of Microsystem and Information Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 865 Changning Road, Shanghai, 200050, China

    Haomin Wang

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  1. Chunxiao Cong
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Correspondence to Chunxiao Cong, Jingzhi Shang, Zhijun Qiu or Ting Yu.

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Intrinsic excitonic emission and valley Zeeman splitting in epitaxial MS2 (M = Mo and W) monolayers on hexagonal boron nitride

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Cong, C., Zou, C., Cao, B. et al. Intrinsic excitonic emission and valley Zeeman splitting in epitaxial MS2 (M = Mo and W) monolayers on hexagonal boron nitride. Nano Res. 11, 6227–6236 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-018-2142-5

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