Plasmonic and 2D-TMD nanoarrays for large-scale photon harvesting and enhanced molecular photo-bleaching

Abstract

The urgent environmental and energy challenges require novel solutions for efficient light harvesting and conversion in new-generation ultra-thin devices. Plasmonic nanoantennas and flat optics nanogratings can promote light matter interaction at the nanoscale being very attractive for ultra-thin photonics and sensing applications. In this work we developed two light trapping solutions based on large-scale nanomaterials. The first system is a large-scale (cm2) plasmonic metasurface based on self-organized gold nanostripes. The second is based on the periodic re-shaping of ultra-thin semiconducting MoS2 layers forming large-area flat-optics nanogratings. Under this condition Rayleigh Anomalies can be resonantly excited thus promoting in-plane light confinement and photon absorption into the few-layers material. To demonstrate the impact of these nanopatterned systems in photon harvesting we probed their efficiency into a prototypal photochemical reaction: the photo-bleaching of Methylene Blue (MB). We demonstrate the resonant enhancement of the photo-bleaching of these polluting dye molecules promoted either by the localized plasmon resonance in Au nanostripes or by the Rayleigh Anomaly in flat-optics MoS2 nanogratings. We investigate this effect through a quantitative analysis of the solution photodissociation induced by a monochromatic light. These results show the strong potential of flat-optics templates for light-harvesting and energy conversion in ultra-thin photonic devices.