We have synthesized high-quality, micrometer-sized, single-crystal GeSe nanosheets using vapor transport and deposition techniques. Photoresponse is investigated based on mechanically exfoliated GeSe nanosheet combined with Au contacts under a global laser irradiation scheme. The nonlinearship, asymmetric, and unsaturated characteristics of the I-V curves reveal that two uneven back-to-back Schottky contacts are formed. First-principles calculations indicate that the occurrence of defects-induced in-gap defective states, which are responsible for the slow decay of the current in the OFF state and for the weak light intensity dependence of photocurrent. The Schottky photodetector exhibits a marked photoresponse to NIR light illumination (maximum photoconductive gain ∼5.3 × 10(2) % at 4 V) at a wavelength of 808 nm. The significant photoresponse and good responsitivity (∼3.5 A W(-1)) suggests its potential applications as photodetectors.

The origin of threshold voltage instability with gate voltage in MoS 2 transistors is poorly understood but critical for device reliability and performance. Reversibility of the temperature dependence of hysteresis and its inversion with temperature in MoS 2 transistors has not been demonstrated. In this work, we delineate two independent mechanisms responsible for thermally assisted hysteresis inversion in gate transfer characteristics of contact resistance-independent multilayer MoS 2 transistors. Variable temperature hysteresis measurements were performed on gated four-terminal van der Pauw and two-terminal devices of MoS 2 on SiO 2 . Additional hysteresis measurements on suspended (~100 nm air gap between MoS 2 and SiO 2 ) transistors and under different ambient conditions (vacuum/nitrogen) were used to further isolate the mechanisms. Clockwise hysteresis at room temperature (300 K) that decreases with increasing temperature is shown to result from intrinsic defects/traps in MoS 2 . At higher temperatures a second, independent mechanism of charge trapping and de-trapping between the oxide and p + Si gate leads to hysteresis collapse at~350 K and anti-clockwise hysteresis (inversion) for temperatures >350 K. The intrinsic-oxide trap model has been corroborated through device simulations. Further, pulsed current-voltage (I-V) measurements were carried out to extract the trap time constants at different temperatures. Non-volatile memory and temperature sensor applications exploiting temperature dependent hysteresis inversion and its reversibility in MoS 2 transistors have also been demonstrated. npj 2D Materials and Applications (2017) 1:34 ; doi:10.1038/s41699-017-0038-y INTRODUCTION Among two-dimensional materials, graphene 1,2 was the first to be isolated and studied with respect to electronic applications. Due to lack of an energy bandgap in graphene, other 2D materials such as layered transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) comprising a wide selection of materials with different bandstructures, and therefore different electrical and optical properties, have garnered significant attention.3-5 Molybdenum disulfide (MoS 2 ) has emerged as a prospective candidate for transistor applications. The presence of a direct bandgap (~1.8 eV) in monolayer form and an indirect bandgap (~1.2 eV) in multilayer MoS 2 makes it a promising channel material for field effect transistors (FETs).

Temperature and Fermi energy dependent exciton eigenenergies of monolayer molybdenum disulfide (MoS 2 ) are calculated using an atomistic model. These exciton eigen-energies are used as the resonance frequencies of a hybrid Lorentz-Drude-Gaussian model, in which oscillation strengths and damping coefficients are obtained from the experimental results for the differential transmission and reflection spectra of monolayer MoS 2 coated quartz and silicon substrates, respectively. Numerical results compared to experimental results found in the literature reveal that the developed permittivity model can successfully represent the monolayer MoS 2 under different biasing conditions at different temperatures for the design and simulation of MoS 2 based opto-electronic devices.

Rhenium disulfide (ReS2) is an attractive candidate for photodetection applications owing to its thickness-independent direct band gap. Despite various photodetection studies using two-dimensional semiconductors, the trade-off between responsivity and response time under varying measurement conditions has not been studied in detail. This report presents a comprehensive study of the architectural, laser power and gate bias dependence of responsivity and speed in supported and suspended ReS2 phototransistors. Photocurrent scans show uniform photogeneration across the entire channel because of enhanced optical absorption and a direct band gap in multilayer ReS2. A high responsivity of 4 A W–1 (at 50 ms response time) and a low response time of 20 μs (at 4 mA W–1 responsivity) make this one of the fastest reported transition-metal dichalcogenide photodetectors. Occupancy of intrinsic (bulk ReS2) and extrinsic (ReS2/SiO2 interface) traps is modulated using gate bias to demonstrate tunability of the response time (responsivity) over 4 orders (15×) of magnitude, highlighting the versatility of these photodetectors. Differences in the trap distributions of suspended and supported channel architectures, and their occupancy under different gate biases enable switching the dominant operating mechanism between either photogating or photoconduction. Further, a new metric that captures intrinsic photodetector performance by including the trade-off between its responsivity and speed, besides normalizing for the applied bias and geometry, is proposed and benchmarked for this work.

Few-layer rhenium disulfide (ReS 2) field-effect transistors with a local floating gate (FG) of monolayer graphene separated by a thin hexagonal boron nitride tunnel layer for application to a non-volatile memory (NVM) device are designed and investigated. FG-NVM devices based on two-dimensional van-der-Waals heterostructures have been recently studied as important components to realize digital electronics and multifunctional memory applications. Direct bandgap multilayer ReS 2 satisfies various requirements as a channel material for electronic devices as well as being a strong lightabsorbing layer, which makes it possible to realize light-assisted optoelectronic applications. The NVM operation with a high ON/OFF current ratio, a large memory window, good endurance (>1000 cycles), and stable retention (>10 4 s) are observed. The successive program and erase states using 10 ms gate pulses of +10 V and −10 V are demonstrated, respectively. Laser pulses along with electrostatic gate pulses provide multibit level memory access via opto-electrostatic coupling. The devices exhibit the dual functionality of a conventional electronic memory and can store laser-pulse excited signal information for future all-optical logic and quantum information processing.

In this work we explore the preparation of complex-shaped semiconductor nanostructures composed of different materials via a cationic exchange process in which the cations of the original semiconductor nanostructure are replaced by cations of different metals with preservation of the shape and the anionic framework of the nanocrystals. Utilizing this cation exchange method, we synthesized two new tetrapods for the first time: Cu2-xSe/Cu2-xS and PbSe/PbS, both prepared from CdSe/CdS tetrapods as 'templates'. We also fabricated near-infrared (NIR) photodetectors with a very simple architecture comprising a PbSe/PbS tetrapod layer between two Au electrodes on a glass substrate. When illuminated by a NIR laser, these devices are capable of achieving a responsivity of 11.9 A W(-1) without the use of ligand-exchange processes, thermal annealing or hybrid device architecture. Transient absorption spectroscopy was carried out on these PbSe/PbS tetrapods, the results of which suggest that the branched morphology contributes in part to device performance. Investigation of the charge dynamics of the PbSe/PbS tetrapods revealed an extremely long-lived exciton recombination lifetime of ∼17 ms, which can result in enhanced photoconductive gain. Overall, these heterostructured tetrapods showcase simultaneously the importance of nanoparticle shape, band structure, and surface chemistry in the attainment of NIR photodetection.

Modulation of photoluminescence of atomically thin transition metal dichalcogenide two-dimensional materials is critical for their integration in optoelectronic and photonic device applications. By coupling with different plasmonic array geometries, we have shown that the photoluminescence intensity can be enhanced and quenched in comparison with pristine monolayer MoS2. The enhanced exciton emission intensity can be further tuned by varying the angle of polarized incident excitation. Through controlled variation of the structural parameters of the plasmonic array in our experiment, we demonstrate modulation of the photoluminescence intensity from nearly fourfold quenching to approximately threefold enhancement. Our data indicates that the plasmonic resonance couples to optical fields at both, excitation and emission bands, and increases the spontaneous emission rate in a double spacing plasmonic array structure as compared with an equal spacing array structure. Furthermore our experimental results are supported by numerical as well as full electromagnetic wave simulations. This study can facilitate the incorporation of plasmon-enhanced transition metal dichalcogenide structures in photodetector, sensor and light emitter applications.

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