Formation of heterojunctions of transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) stimulates wide interest in new device physics and technology by tuning optical and electronic properties of TMDs. TMDs heterojunctions are of scientific and technological interest for exploration of next generation flexible electronics. Herein, we report on a two-step epitaxial ambient-pressure CVD technique to construct in-plane MoS2-WS2 heterostructures. The technique has the potential to artificially control the shape and structure of heterostructures or even to be more potentially extendable to growth of TMD superlattice than that of one-step CVD technique. Moreover, the unique MX2 heterostructure with monolayer MoS2 core wrapped by multilayer WS2 is obtained by the technique, which is entirely different from MX2 heterostructures synthesized by existing one-step CVD technique. Transmission electron microscopy, Raman and photoluminescence mapping studies reveal that the obtained heterostructure nanosheets clearly exhibit the modulated structural and optical properties. Electrical transport studies demonstrate that the special MoS2 (monolayer)/WS2 (multilayer) heterojunctions serve as intrinsic lateral p-n diodes and unambiguously show the photovoltaic effect. On the basis of this special heterostructure, depletion-layer width and built-in potential, as well as the built-in electric field distribution, are obtained by KPFM measurement, which are the essential parameters for TMD optoelectronic devices. With further development in future studies, this growth approach is envisaged to bring about a new growth platform for two-dimensional atomic crystals and to create unprecedented architectures therefor.

Lateral WS2-MoS2 heterostructures are synthesized by a shortcut one-step growth recipe with low-cost and soluble salts. The 2D spatial distributions of the built-in potential and the related electric field of the lateral WS2-MoS2 heterostructure are quantitatively analyzed by scanning Kelvin probe force microscopy revealing the fundamental attributes of the lateral heterostructure devices.

We experimentally demonstrated the use of random plasmonic nano-islands for optical trapping and assembling of particles and live cells into highly organized pattern with low power density. The observed trapping effect is attributed to the net contribution due to near-field optical trapping force and long-range thermophoretic force, which overcomes the axial convective drag force, while the lateral convection pushes the target objects into the trapping zone. Our work provides a simple platform for on-chip optical manipulation of nano- and micro-sized objects, and may find applications in physical and life sciences.

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We demonstrate optical trapping on a gold-coated single-mode fiber tip as excited by 980-nm laser radiation. The trapping force here is not due to common plasmonic localization, but dominated by the combined effect of thermophoresis and thermal convection. The reported scheme only requires simple thin-film deposition. More importantly, efficient broadband plasmonic absorption of the gold random nanostructures, aided by purely Gaussian excitation profile from the fiber core, has led to very low trapping-power threshold typically in hundreds of microwatts. This highly versatile fiber-based trapping scheme clearly offers many potential application possibilities in life sciences as well as engineering disciplines.

Surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) typically requires hot-spots generated in nano-fabricated plasmonic structures. Here we report a highly versatile approach based on the use of random gold nano-island substrates (AuNIS). Hot spots are produced through the entrapment of colloidal plasmonic nano-crystals at the interface between AuNIS and a microbubble, which is generated from the localized plasmonic absorption of a focused laser beam. The entrapment strength is strongly dependent on the shape of the microbubble, which is in turn affected by the surface wetting characteristics of the AuNIS with respect to the solvent composition. The laser power intensity required to trigger microbubble-induced SERS is as low as 200 μW μm(-2). Experimental results indicate that the SERS limit of detection (LOD) for molecules of 4-MBA (with -SH bonds) is 10(-12) M, R6G or RhB (without -SH bonds) is 10(-7) M. The proposed strategy has potential applications in low-cost lab-on-chip devices for the label-free detection of chemical and biological molecules.

Optical tweezers are a well-established tool for manipulating small objects. However, their integration with microfluidic devices often requires an objective lens. More importantly, trapping of non-transparent or optically sensitive targets is particularly challenging for optical tweezers. Here, for the first time, we present a photon-free trapping technique based on electro-thermally induced forces. We demonstrate that thermal-gradient-induced thermophoresis and thermal convection can lead to trapping of polystyrene spheres and live cells. While the subject of thermophoresis, particularly in the micro- and nano-scale, still remains to be fully explored, our experimental results have provided a reasonable explanation for the trapping effect. The so-called thermal tweezers, which can be readily fabricated by femtosecond laser writing, operate with low input power density and are highly versatile in terms of device configuration, thus rendering high potential for integration with microfluidic devices as well as lab-on-a-chip systems.

In this letter, the different scattering mechanisms of triphenylene-derived graphene on conventional SiO2/Si substrates and octadecyltrimethoxysilane (OTMS) self-assembled monolayer (SAM) functionalized SiO2/Si substrates were systematically studied at room temperature. In comparison with the devices on conventional SiO2/Si substrates, triphenylene-derived GFETs with OTMS-SAM modified SiO2/Si substrate exhibit the marked carrier-density-dependent field-effect mobility. Quantitative analyses reveal that at ambient temperature, the predominant scattering sources affect the carrier mean free path for graphene devices on bare SiO2 substrates and for those on OTMS passivated SiO2 substrates are charged impurity induced long-range scattering (~5.34 × 10(11) cm(-2) in carrier density) and resonant scattering (short-range scattering ~9.77 × 10(10) cm(-2) carrier in density), respectively. Our findings elucidate the underlying dominant factors for achieving significantly improved device performance of GFETs at room temperature.