Thickness-dependent electronic relaxation dynamics in solution-phase redox-exfoliated MoS2 heterostructures

Abstract

Electronic relaxation dynamics of solution-phase redox-exfoliated molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) monolayer and multilayer ensembles are described. MoS2 was exfoliated using polyoxometalate (POM) reductants. This process yields a colloidal heterostructure consisting of MoS2 2D sheet multilayers with surface-bound POM complexes. Using two-dimensional electronic spectroscopy, transient bleaching and photoinduced absorption signals were detected at excitation/detection energies of 1.82/1.87 and 1.82/1.80 eV, respectively. Approximate 100-fs bandgap renormalization (BGR) and subsequent defect- and phonon-mediated relaxation on the picosecond timescale were resolved for several MoS2 thicknesses spanning from 1 to 2 L to ∼20 L. BGR rates were independent of sample thickness and slightly slower than observations for chemical vapor deposition-grown MoS2 monolayers. However, defect-mediated relaxation accelerated ∼10-fold with increased sample thicknesses. The relaxation rates increased from 0.33 ± 0.05 to 1.2 ± 0.1 and 3.1 ± 0.4 ps−1 for 1–2 L, 3–4 L, and 20 L fractions. The thicknesses-dependent relaxation rates for POM-MoS2 heterostructures were modeled using a saturating exponential function that showed saturation at thirteen MoS2 layers. The results suggest that the increased POM surface coverage leads to larger defect density in the POM-MoS2 heterostructure. These are the first descriptions of the influence of sample thickness on electronic relaxation rates in solution-phase redox-exfoliated POM-MoS2 heterostructures. Outcomes of this work are expected to impact the development of solution-phase exfoliation of 2D metal-chalcogenide heterostructures.

Large Area Film of Highly Crystalline, Cleavable, and Transferable Semi-Conducting 2D-Imine Covalent Organic Framework on Dielectric Glass Substrate

“…As shown using SEM, AFM, and TEM, different thin/ultrathin films have variations in the number of COF layers (monolayer to multilayers). As a matter of fact, such spectral shifts as a function of number of layers (or in other words, layer thickness) are quite a common feature for 2D semiconductor thin films. − We note that the absorption spectra recorded on as synthesized clean film reveal a broad absorption around 500–530 nm and a relatively sharp λ max at ∼392 nm. This shows that the as synthesized film is semiconducting in nature (see spectrum in SI S19).…”