Insulating 6,6‐Phenyl‐C61‐butyric Acid Methyl Ester on Transition‐Metal Dichalcogenides: Impact of the Hybrid Materials on the Optical and Electrical Properties

Abstract

In this study we develop a strategy to insulate 6,6 ‐Phenyl C61 butyric acid methyl ester (PCBM) on the basal plane of transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs). Concretely single layers of MoS2, MoSe2, MoTe2, WS2, WSe2 and WTe2 and ultrathin MoO2 and WO2 were grown via chemical vapor deposition (CVD). Then, the thiol group of a PCBM modified with cysteine reacts with the chalcogen vacancies on the basal plane of TMDs, yielding PCBM‐MoS2, PCBM‐MoSe2, PCBM‐WS2, PCBM‐WSe2, PCBM‐WTe2, PCBM‐MoO2 and PCBM‐WO2. Afterwards, all the hybrid materials were characterized using several techniques, including XPS, Raman spectroscopy, TEM, AFM, and cyclic voltammetry. Furthermore, PCBM causes a unique optical and electrical impact in every TMDs. For MoS2 devices, the conductivity and photoluminescence (PL) emission achieve a remarkable enhancement of 1700% and 200% in PCBM‐MoS2 hybrids. Similarly, PCBM‐MoTe2 hybrids exhibit a 2‐fold enhancement in PL emission at 1.1 eV. On the other hand, PCBM‐MoSe2, PCBM‐WSe2 and PCBM‐WS2 hybrids exhibited a new interlayer exciton at 1.29‐1.44, 1.7 and 1.37‐154 eV along with an enhancement of the photo‐response by 2400, 3200 and 600%, respectively. Additionally, PCBM‐WTe2 and PCBM‐WO2 showed a modest photo‐response, in sharp contrast with pristine WTe2 or WO2 which archive pure metallic character.