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Controllable defects implantation in MoS2 grown by chemical vapor deposition for photoluminescence enhancement

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Abstract

Photoluminescence (PL) of transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) can be engineered by controlling the density of defects, which provide active sites for electron-hole recombination, either radiatively or non-radiatively. However, the implantation of defects by external stimulation, such as uniaxial tension and irradiation, tends to introduce local damages or structural non-homogeneity, which greatly degrades their luminescence properties and impede their applicability in constructing optoelectronic devices. In this paper, we present a strategy to introduce a controllable level of defects into the MoS2 monolayers by adding a hydrogen flow during the chemical vapor deposition, without sacrificing their luminescence characteristics. The density of the defect is controlled directly by the concentration of hydrogen. For an appropriate hydrogen flux, the monolayer MoS2 sheets have three times stronger PL emission at the excitonic transitions, compared with those samples with nearly perfect crystalline structure. The defect-bounded exciton transitions at lower energies arising in the defective samples and are maximized when the total PL is the strongest. However, the B exciton, exhibits a monotonic decline as the defect density increases. The Raman spectra of the defective MoS2 reveal a redshift (blueshift) of the in-plane (out-of-plane) vibration modes as the hydrogen flux increases. All the evidence indicates that the generated defects are in the form of sulfur vacancies. This study renders the high-throughput synthesis of defective MoS2 possible for catalysis or light emitting applications.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Physics, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, 430074, China

    Ke Wu, Xianglong Lv, Hailing Wang, Lihua Qian & Songliu Yuan

  2. School of Physics and Technology, Center for Nanoscience and Nanotechnology, and Key Laboratory of Artificial Micro-and Nano-Structures of Ministry of Education, Wuhan University, Wuhan, 430072, China

    Zhe Li & Shunping Zhang

  3. The Institute for Advanced Studies, Wuhan University, Wuhan, 430072, China

    Jibo Tang

  4. Flexible Electronics Research Center, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, 430074, China

    Xianglong Lv, Hailing Wang & Lihua Qian

  5. Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Shanghai Jiaotong University, Shanghai, 200240, China

    Ruichun Luo & Pan Liu

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  1. Ke Wu
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Correspondence to Lihua Qian or Shunping Zhang.

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Wu, K., Li, Z., Tang, J. et al. Controllable defects implantation in MoS2 grown by chemical vapor deposition for photoluminescence enhancement. Nano Res. 11, 4123–4132 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-018-1999-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-018-1999-7

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