Showing papers by "Andras Kis published in 2018"

Room-temperature electrical control of exciton flux in a van der Waals heterostructure.

Abstract: Devices that rely on the manipulation of excitons—bound pairs of electrons and holes—hold great promise for realizing efficient interconnects between optical data transmission and electrical processing systems. Although exciton-based transistor actions have been demonstrated successfully in bulk semiconductor-based coupled quantum wells1–3, the low temperature required for their operation limits their practical application. The recent emergence of two-dimensional semiconductors with large exciton binding energies4,5 may lead to excitonic devices and circuits that operate at room temperature. Whereas individual two-dimensional materials have short exciton diffusion lengths, the spatial separation of electrons and holes in different layers in heterostructures could help to overcome this limitation and enable room-temperature operation of mesoscale devices6–8. Here we report excitonic devices made of MoS2–WSe2 van der Waals heterostructures encapsulated in hexagonal boron nitride that demonstrate electrically controlled transistor actions at room temperature. The long-lived nature of the interlayer excitons in our device results in them diffusing over a distance of five micrometres. Within our device, we further demonstrate the ability to manipulate exciton dynamics by creating electrically reconfigurable confining and repulsive potentials for the exciton flux. Our results make a strong case for integrating two-dimensional materials in future excitonic devices to enable operation at room temperature. Heterobilayer excitonic devices consisting of two different van der Waals materials, in which excitons are shared between the layers, exhibit electrically controlled switching actions at room temperature.

Thickness-modulated metal-to-semiconductor transformation in a transition metal dichalcogenide

Abstract: The possibility of tailoring physical properties by changing the number of layers in van der Waals crystals is one of the driving forces behind the emergence of two-dimensional materials. One example is bulk MoS2, which changes from an indirect gap semiconductor to a direct bandgap semiconductor in the monolayer form. Here, we show a much bigger tuning range with a complete switching from a metal to a semiconductor in atomically thin PtSe2 as its thickness is reduced. Crystals with a thickness of ~13 nm show metallic behavior with a contact resistance as low as 70 Ω·µm. As they are thinned down to 2.5 nm and below, we observe semiconducting behavior. In such thin crystals, we demonstrate ambipolar transport with a bandgap smaller than 2.2 eV and an on/off ratio of ~105. Our results demonstrate that PtSe2 possesses an unusual behavior among 2D materials, enabling novel applications in nano and optoelectronics.

Control of interlayer excitons in two-dimensional van der Waals heterostructures

Abstract: Long-lived interlayer excitons with distinct spin-valley physics in van der Waals heterostructures based on transition metal dichalcogenides make them promising for information processing in next-generation devices. While the emission characteristics of interlayer excitons in different types of hetero stacks have been extensively studied, the manipulation of these excitons required to alter the valley-state or tune the emission energy and intensity is still lacking. Here, we demonstrate such control over interlayer excitons in MoSe2/WSe2 heterostructures. The encapsulation of our stack with h-BN ensures ultraclean interfaces, allowing us to resolve four separate narrow interlayer emission peaks. We observe two main interlayer transitions with opposite helicities under circularly polarized excitation, either conserving or inverting the polarization of incoming light. We further demonstrate control over the wavelength, intensity, and polarization of exciton emission by electrical and magnetic fields. Such ability to manipulate the interlayer excitons and their polarization could pave the way for novel excitonic and valleytronic device applications.

Large-grain MBE-grown GaSe on GaAs with a Mexican hat-like valence band dispersion

Abstract: Atomically thin GaSe has been predicted to have a non-parabolic, Mexican hat-like valence band structure due to the shift of the valence band maximum (VBM) near the Γ point which is expected to give rise to novel, unique properties such as tunable magnetism, high effective mass suppressing direct tunneling in scaled transistors, and an improved thermoelectric figure of merit. However, the synthesis of atomically thin GaSe remains challenging. Here, we report on the growth of atomically thin GaSe by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) and demonstrate the high quality of the resulting van der Waals epitaxial films. The full valence band structure of nominal bilayer GaSe is revealed by photoemission electron momentum microscopy (k-PEEM), confirming the presence of a distorted valence band near the Γ point. Our results open the way to demonstrating interesting new physical phenomena based on MBE-grown GaSe films and atomically thin monochalcogenides in general. Molecular beam epitaxy enables growth of high-quality, atomically thin GaSe on a GaAs substrate. A team led by Andras Kis at EPFL successfully demonstrated the synthesis of large-grain GaSe van der Waals epitaxial films using a two-step growth approach. The quality and spatial uniformity of the as-grown films were probed by various means of characterization, including scanning transmission electron microscopy, in-situ reflection high energy electron diffraction, and photoemission electron momentum microscopy. The results indicate a uniform distribution of Ga and Se in the GaSe film; at the atomically thin limit, the electronic band structure was found to exhibit inverted band dispersion at the Γ point, leading to a Mexican Hat-like valence band dispersion. These finding may pave the way to potential applications of GaSe in large-area electronics and spintronics.

Intervalley Scattering of Interlayer Excitons in a MoS2/MoSe2/MoS2 Heterostructure in High Magnetic Field

Abstract: Degenerate extrema in the energy dispersion of charge carriers in solids, also referred to as valleys, can be regarded as a binary quantum degree of freedom, which can potentially be used to implement valleytronic concepts in van der Waals heterostructures based on transition metal dichalcogenides. Using magneto-photoluminescence spectroscopy, we achieve a deeper insight into the valley polarization and depolarization mechanisms of interlayer excitons formed across a MoS2/MoSe2/MoS2 heterostructure. We account for the nontrivial behavior of the valley polarization as a function of the magnetic field by considering the interplay between exchange interaction and phonon-mediated intervalley scattering in a system consisting of Zeeman-split energy levels. Our results represent a crucial step toward the understanding of the properties of interlayer excitons with strong implications for the implementation of atomically thin valleytronic devices.

Reconfigurable Diodes Based on Vertical WSe2 Transistors with van der Waals Bonded Contacts.

Abstract: New device concepts can increase the functionality of scaled electronic devices, with reconfigurable diodes allowing the design of more compact logic gates being one of the examples. In recent years, there has been significant interest in creating reconfigurable diodes based on ultrathin transition metal dichalcogenide crystals due to their unique combination of gate-tunable charge carriers, high mobility, and sizeable band gap. Thanks to their large surface areas, these devices are constructed under planar geometry and the device characteristics are controlled by electrostatic gating through rather complex two independent local gates or ionic-liquid gating. In this work, similar reconfigurable diode action is demonstrated in a WSe2 transistor by only utilizing van der Waals bonded graphene and Co/h-BN contacts. Toward this, first the charge injection efficiencies into WSe2 by graphene and Co/h-BN contacts are characterized. While Co/h-BN contact results in nearly Schottky-barrier-free charge injection, graphene/WSe2 interface has an average barrier height of ≈80 meV. By taking the advantage of the electrostatic transparency of graphene and the different work-function values of graphene and Co/h-BN, vertical devices are constructed where different gate-tunable diode actions are demonstrated. This architecture reveals the opportunities for exploring new device concepts.

Non equilibrium anisotropic excitons in atomically thin ReS$_2$

Abstract: We present a systematic investigation of the electronic properties of bulk and few layer ReS$_2$ van der Waals crystals using low temperature optical spectroscopy. Weak photoluminescence emission is observed from two non-degenerate band edge excitonic transitions separated by $\sim$ 20 meV. The comparable emission intensity of both excitonic transitions is incompatible with a fully thermalized (Boltzmann) distribution of excitons, indicating the hot nature of the emission. While DFT calculations predict bilayer ReS$_2$ to have a direct fundamental band gap, our optical data suggests that the fundamental gap is indirect in all cases.

Electronic Properties of Transferable Atomically Thin MoSe2/h-BN Heterostructures Grown on Rh(111)

Abstract: Vertically stacked two-dimensional (2D) heterostructures composed of 2D semiconductors have attracted great attention. Most of these include hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) as either a substrate, an encapsulant, or a tunnel barrier. However, reliable synthesis of large-area and epitaxial 2D heterostructures incorporating BN remains challenging. Here, we demonstrate the epitaxial growth of nominal monolayer (ML) MoSe2 on h-BN/Rh(111) by molecular beam epitaxy, where the MoSe2/h-BN layer system can be transferred from the growth substrate onto SiO2. The valence band structure of ML MoSe2/h-BN/Rh(111) revealed by photoemission electron momentum microscopy (kPEEM) shows that the valence band maximum located at the K point is 1.33 eV below the Fermi level (EF), whereas the energy difference between K and Γ points is determined to be 0.23 eV, demonstrating that the electronic properties, such as the direct band gap and the effective mass of ML MoSe2, are well preserved in MoSe2/h-BN heterostructures.

Impact of photodoping on inter- and intralayer exciton emission in a MoS2/MoSe2/MoS2 heterostructure

Abstract: The illumination of monolayer transition metal dichalcogenides can dynamically photoionize donor centers, increasing the concentration of free carriers. Here, we investigate the effect of such photodoping on the interlayer exciton formed across a MoS2/MoSe2/MoS2 heterostructure. We first identify the photodoping effect by monitoring the increase in the trion dissociation energy, accompanied by a characteristic tuning of the exciton/trion photoluminescence (PL) intensity ratio in MoSe2 upon exposure to laser light. At the same time, the PL intensity of the interlayer exciton significantly decreases, while the combined PL intensity of the exciton and the trion in MoSe2 is enhanced, showing that the interlayer charge transfer can be controlled by the doping level. This effect is persistent on a timescale of several hours, provided that the sample is maintained under vacuum, suggesting a mechanism involving laser induced desorption of molecules physisorbed on the surface of the heterostructure. This hypothesis is supported by the observation of a significantly faster photodoping effect when the sample is excited with a pulsed laser with the same average power.

Optospintronics in graphene via proximity coupling

Abstract: The observation of micrometer size spin relaxation makes graphene a promising material for applications in spintronics requiring long-distance spin communication. However, spin dependent scatterings at the contact/graphene interfaces affect the spin injection efficiencies and hence prevent the material from achieving its full potential. While this major issue could be eliminated by nondestructive direct optical spin injection schemes, graphene’s intrinsically low spin–orbit coupling strength and optical absorption place an obstacle in their realization. We overcome this challenge by creating sharp artificial interfaces between graphene and WSe2 monolayers. Application of circularly polarized light activates the spin-polarized charge carriers in the WSe2 layer due to its spin-coupled valley-selective absorption. These carriers diffuse into the superjacent graphene layer, transport over a 3.5 μm distance, and are finally detected electrically using Co/h-BN contacts in a nonlocal geometry. Polarization-depen...