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1. Twist-angle dependence of moiré excitons in WS2/MoSe2 heterobilayers

   https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-19466-6  

   Zhang, Long ; Zhang, Zhe ; Wu, Fengcheng ; Wang, Danqing ; Gogna, Rahul ; Hou, Shaocong ; Watanabe, Kenji ; Taniguchi, Takashi ; Kulkarni, Krishnamurthy ; Kuo, Thomas ; et al ( November 2020 , Nature Communications)

   Moiré lattices formed in twisted van der Waals bilayers provide a unique, tunable platform to realize coupled electron or exciton lattices unavailable before. While twist angle between the bilayer has been shown to be a critical parameter in engineering the moiré potential and enabling novel phenomena in electronic moiré systems, a systematic experimental study as a function of twist angle is still missing. Here we show that not only are moiré excitons robust in bilayers of even large twist angles, but also properties of the moiré excitons are dependant on, and controllable by, the moiré reciprocal lattice period via twist-angle tuning. From the twist-angle dependence, we furthermore obtain the effective mass of the interlayer excitons and the electron inter-layer tunneling strength, which are difficult to measure experimentally otherwise. These findings pave the way for understanding and engineering rich moiré-lattice induced phenomena in angle-twisted semiconductor van der Waals heterostructures.
2. Charge transfer dynamics and interlayer exciton formation in MoS2/VOPc mixed dimensional heterojunction

   https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0107791  

   Schwinn, Madison C. ; Rafiq, Shahnawaz ; Lee, Changmin ; Bland, Matthew P. ; Song, Thomas W. ; Sangwan, Vinod K. ; Hersam, Mark C. ; Chen, Lin X. ( November 2022 , The Journal of Chemical Physics)

   Mixed-dimensional van der Waals heterojunctions involve interfacing materials with different dimensionalities, such as a 2D transition metal dichalcogenide and a 0D organic semiconductor. These heterojunctions have shown unique interfacial properties not found in either individual component. Here, we use femtosecond transient absorption to reveal photoinduced charge transfer and interlayer exciton formation in a mixed-dimensional type-II heterojunction between monolayer MoS2 and vanadyl phthalocyanine (VOPc). Selective excitation of the MoS2 exciton leads to hole transfer from the MoS2 valence band to VOPc highest occupied molecular orbit in ∼710 fs. On the contrary, selective photoexcitation of the VOPc layer leads to instantaneous electron transfer from its excited state to the conduction band of MoS2 in less than 100 fs. This light-initiated ultrafast separation of electrons and holes across the heterojunction interface leads to the formation of an interlayer exciton. These interlayer excitons formed across the interface lead to longer-lived charge-separated states of up to 2.5 ns, longer than in each individual layer of this heterojunction. Thus, the longer charge-separated state along with ultrafast charge transfer times provide promising results for photovoltaic and optoelectronic device applications.
3. Efficient hole transfer from monolayer WS ₂ to ultrathin amorphous black phosphorus

   https://doi.org/10.1039/C8NH00234G  

   Bellus, Matthew Z. ; Yang, Zhibin ; Zereshki, Peymon ; Hao, Jianhua ; Lau, Shu Ping ; Zhao, Hui ( January 2019 , Nanoscale Horizons)

   The newly developed van der Waals materials allow fabrication of multilayer heterostructures. Early efforts have mostly focused on heterostructures formed by similar materials. More recently, however, attempts have been made to expand the types of materials, such as topological insulators and organic semiconductors. Here we introduce an amorphous semiconductor to the material library for constructing van der Waals heterostructures. Samples composed of 2 nm amorphous black phosphorus synthesized by pulsed laser deposition and monolayer WS 2 obtained by mechanical exfoliation were fabricated by dry transfer. Photoluminescence measurements revealed that photocarriers excited in WS 2 of the heterostructure transfer to amorphous black phosphorus, in the form of either energy or charge transfer, on a time scale shorter than the exciton lifetime in WS 2 . Transient absorption measurements further indicate that holes can efficiently transfer from WS 2 to amorphous black phosphorus. However, interlayer electron transfer in either direction was found to be absent. The lack of electron transfer from amorphous black phosphorus to WS 2 is attributed to the localized electronic states in the amorphous semiconductor. Furthermore, we show that a hexagonal BN bilayer can effectively change the hole transfer process.
4. Tunable strain soliton networks confine electrons in van der Waals materials

   https://doi.org/10.1038/s41567-020-0953-2  

   Edelberg, Drew ; Kumar, Hemant ; Shenoy, Vivek ; Ochoa, Héctor ; Pasupathy, Abhay N. ( July 2020 , Nature Physics)

   Twisting or sliding two-dimensional crystals with respect to each other gives rise to moiré patterns determined by the difference in their periodicities. Such lattice mismatches can exist for several reasons: differences between the intrinsic lattice constants of the two layers, as is the case for graphene on BN; rotations between the two lattices, as is the case for twisted bilayer graphene; and strains between two identical layers in a bilayer. Moiré patterns are responsible for a number of new electronic phenomena observed in recent years in van der Waals heterostructures, including the observation of superlattice Dirac points for graphene on BN, collective electronic phases in twisted bilayers and twisted double bilayers, and trapping of excitons in the moiré potential. An open question is whether we can use moiré potentials to achieve strong trapping potentials for electrons. Here, we report a technique to achieve deep, deterministic trapping potentials via strain-based moiré engineering in van der Waals materials. We use strain engineering to create on-demand soliton networks in transition metal dichalcogenides. Intersecting solitons form a honeycomb-like network resulting from the three-fold symmetry of the adhesion potential between layers. The vertices of this network occur in bound pairs with different interlayer stacking arrangements.more »One vertex of the pair is found to be an efficient trap for electrons, displaying two states that are deeply confined within the semiconductor gap and have a spatial extent of 2 nm. Soliton networks thus provide a path to engineer deeply confined states with a strain-dependent tunable spatial separation, without the necessity of introducing chemical defects into the host materials.« less
5. Van der Waals Nanowires with Continuously Variable Interlayer Twist and Twist Homojunctions

   https://doi.org/10.1002/adfm.202006412  

   Sutter, Peter ; Idrobo, Juan‐Carlos ; Sutter, Eli ( December 2020 , Advanced Functional Materials)

   Moiré patterns at van der Waals interfaces between twisted 2D crystals give rise to distinct optoelectronic excitations, as well as, narrowly dispersive bands responsible for correlated electron phenomena. Contrasting with the conventional, mechanically stacked planar twist moirés, recent work shows twisted van der Waals interfaces spontaneously formed in nanowires of layered crystals, where Eshelby twist due to axial screw dislocations stabilizes a chiral structure with small interlayer rotation. Here, the realization of tunable twist in germanium(II) sulfide (GeS) van der Waals nanowires is reported. Tapered nanowires host continuously variable interlayer twist. Homojunctions between dislocated (chiral) and defect‐free (achiral) segments are obtained by triggering the emission of axial dislocations during growth. Measurements across such junctions, implemented here using local absorption and luminescence spectroscopy, provide a convenient tool for detecting twist effects. The results identify a versatile system for 3D twistronics, probing moiré physics, and for realizing moiré architectures without equivalent in planar systems.