https://absimage.aps.org/image/MAR14/MWS_MAR14-2014-020819.pdf

Van der Waals heterostructures

Graphene plasmons were predicted to possess ultra-strong field confinement and very low damping at the same time, enabling new classes of devices for deep subwavelength metamaterials, single-photon nonlinearities, extraordinarily strong light-matter interactions and nano-optoelectronic switches. While all of these great prospects require low damping, thus far strong plasmon damping was observed, with both impurity scattering and many-body effects in graphene proposed as possible explanations. With the advent of van der Waals heterostructures, new methods have been developed to integrate graphene with other atomically flat materials. In this letter we exploit near-field microscopy to image propagating plasmons in high quality graphene encapsulated between two films of hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN). We determine dispersion and particularly plasmon damping in real space. We find unprecedented low plasmon damping combined with strong field confinement, and identify the main damping channels as intrinsic thermal phonons in the graphene and dielectric losses in the h-BN. The observation and in-depth understanding of low plasmon damping is the key for the development of graphene nano-photonic and nano-optoelectronic devices.

Highly confined low-loss plasmons in graphene-boron nitride heterostructures

One-dimensional (1D) metal-oxide nanostructures are ideal systems for exploring a large number of novel phenomena at the nanoscale and investigating size and dimensionality dependence of nanostructure properties for potential applications The construction and integration of photodetectors or optical switches based on such nanostructures with tailored geometries have rapidly advanced in recent years Active 1D nanostructure photodetector elements can be configured either as resistors whose conductions are altered by a charge-transfer process or as field-effect transistors (FET) whose properties can be controlled by applying appropriate potentials onto the gates Functionalizing the structure surfaces offers another avenue for expanding the sensor capabilities This article provides a comprehensive review on the state-of-the-art research activities in the photodetector field It mainly focuses on the metal oxide 1D nanostructures such as ZnO, SnO(2), Cu(2)O, Ga(2)O(3), Fe(2)O(3), In(2)O(3), CdO, CeO(2), and their photoresponses The review begins with a survey of quasi 1D metal-oxide semiconductor nanostructures and the photodetector principle, then shows the recent progresses on several kinds of important metal-oxide nanostructures and their photoresponses and briefly presents some additional prospective metal-oxide 1D nanomaterials Finally, the review is concluded with some perspectives and outlook on the future developments in this area

A comprehensive review of one-dimensional metal-oxide nanostructure photodetectors

Quantum mechanical interactions between electromagnetic radiation and matter underlie a broad spectrum of optical phenomena. Strong light-matter interactions result in the well-known vacuum Rabi splitting and emergence of new polaritonic eigenmodes of the coupled system. Thanks to recent progress in nanofabrication, observation of strong coupling has become possible in a great variety of optical nanostructures. Here, we review recently studied and emerging materials for realization of strong light–matter interactions. We present general theoretical formalism describing strong coupling and give an overview of various photonic structures and materials allowing for realization of this regime, including plasmonic and dielectric nanoantennas, novel two-dimensional materials, carbon nanotubes, and molecular vibrational transitions. In addition, we discuss practical applications that can benefit from these effects and give an outlook on unsettled questions that remain open for future research.

Novel Nanostructures and Materials for Strong Light–Matter Interactions

Vertically oriented graphene (VG) nanosheets have attracted growing interest for a wide range of applications, from energy storage, catalysis and field emission to gas sensing, due to their unique orientation, exposed sharp edges, non-stacking morphology, and huge surface-to-volume ratio. Plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) has emerged as a key method for VG synthesis; however, controllable growth of VG with desirable characteristics for specific applications remains a challenge. This paper attempts to summarize the state-of-the-art research on PECVD growth of VG nanosheets to provide guidelines on the design of plasma sources and operation parameters, and to offer a perspective on outstanding challenges that need to be overcome to enable commercial applications of VG. The review starts with an overview of various types of existing PECVD processes for VG growth, and then moves on to research on the influences of feedstock gas, temperature, and pressure on VG growth, substrate pretreatment, the growth of VG patterns on planar substrates, and VG growth on cylindrical and carbon nanotube (CNT) substrates. The review ends with a discussion on challenges and future directions for PECVD growth of VG.

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Plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition synthesis of vertically oriented graphene nanosheets

Strong light-matter coupling manifested by Rabi splitting has attracted tremendous attention due to its fundamental importance in cavity quantum-electrodynamics research and great potentials in quantum information applications. A prerequisite for practical applications of the strong coupling in future optoelectronic devices is an all-solid-state system exhibiting room-temperature Rabi splitting with active control. Here we realized such a system in heterostructure consisted of monolayer WS2 and an individual plasmonic gold nanorod. By taking advantages of the small mode volume of the nanorod and large transition dipole moment of the WS2 exciton, giant Rabi splitting energies of 91-133 meV can be achieved at ambient conditions, which only involve a small number of excitons. The strong light-matter coupling can be dynamically tuned either by electrostatic gating or temperature scanning. These findings can pave the way toward active nanophotonic devices operating at room temperature.

Room-Temperature Strong Light–Matter Interaction with Active Control in Single Plasmonic Nanorod Coupled with Two-Dimensional Atomic Crystals

Vertical few-layer graphene (FLG) sheets have been fabricated by using microwave-plasma-enhanced chemical vapour deposition. Their shape was manipulated through adjusting the growth time and hydrocarbon gas ratio. The growth mechanism during different growth stages is discussed. The field emission characteristics for different FLG shapes were tested and found to be strongly influenced by the tip shape, the height and the amorphous carbon content. The optimal shape of vertical FLG for field emission had fewer layers, sharp corners, large height and was free of amorphous carbon. The best field emission properties with the optimal shape were observed with a turn-on field of 1.8 V µm−1 and maximum current density of 7 mA cm−2.

http://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/0957-4484/23/1/015202/pdf

Optimize the field emission character of a vertical few-layer graphene sheet by manipulating the morphology.

Graphene and its composites are widely investigated as supercapacitor electrodes due to their large specific surface area. However, the severe aggregation and disordered alignment of graphene sheets hamper the maximum utilization of its surface area. Here we report an optimized structure for supercapacitor electrode, i.e., the vertical graphene sheets, which have a vertical structure and open architecture for ion transport pathway. The effect of morphology and orientation of vertical graphene on the performance of supercapacitor is examined using a combination of model calculation and experimental study. Both results consistently demonstrate that the vertical graphene electrode has a much superior performance than that of lateral graphene electrode. Typically, the areal capacitances of a vertical graphene electrode reach 8.4 mF/cm(2) at scan rate of 100 mV/s; this is about 38% higher than that of a lateral graphene electrode and about 6 times higher than that of graphite paper. To further improve its performance, a MnO2 nanoflake layer is coated on the surface of graphene to provide a high pseudocapacitive contribution to the overall areal capacitance which increases to 500 mF/cm(2) at scan rate of 5 mV/s. The reasons for these significant improvements are studied in detail and are attributed to the fast ion diffusion and enhanced charge storage capacity. The microscopic manipulation of graphene electrode configuration could greatly improve its specific capacitance, and furthermore, boost the energy density of supercapacitor. Our results demonstrate that the vertical graphene electrode is more efficient and practical for the high performance energy storage device with high power and energy densities.

Morphology Effect of Vertical Graphene on the High Performance of Supercapacitor Electrode

Transition-metal dichalcogenide (TMD) semiconductors have attracted interest as photoelectrochemical (PEC) electrodes due to their novel band-gap structures, optoelectronic properties, and photocatalytic activities. However, the photo-harvesting efficiency still requires improvement. In this study, A TMD stacked heterojunction structure was adopted to further enhance the performance of the PEC cathode. A P-type WSe2 and an N-type MoS2 monolayer were stacked layer-by-layer to build a ultrathin vertical heterojunction using a micro-fabrication method. In situ measurement was employed to characterize the intrinsic PEC performance on a single-sheet heterostructure. Benefitting from its built-in electric field and type II band alignment, the MoS2/WSe2 bilayer heterojunction exhibited exceptional photocatalytic activity and a high incident photo-to-current conversion efficiency (IPCE). Comparing with the monolayer WSe2 cathode, the PEC current and the IPCE of the bilayer heterojunction increased by a factor of 5.6 and enhanced 50%, respectively. The intriguing performance renders the MoS2/WSe2 heterojunction attractive for application in high-performance PEC water splitting.

/pdf/enhanced-performance-of-a-monolayer-mos2-wse2-heterojunction-4d4ypwl83k.pdf

Enhanced Performance of a Monolayer MoS2/WSe2 Heterojunction as a Photoelectrochemical Cathode

Due to their optical magnetic and electric resonances associated with the high refractive index, dielectric silicon nanoparticles have been explored as novel nanocavities that are excellent candidates for enhancing various light–matter interactions at the nanoscale. Here, from both of theoretical and experimental aspects, we explored resonance coupling between excitons and magnetic/electric resonances in heterostructures composed of the silicon nanoparticle coated with a molecular J-aggregate shell. The resonance coupling was originated from coherent energy transfer between the exciton and magnetic/electric modes, which was manifested by quenching dips on the scattering spectrum due to formation of hybrid modes. The influences of various parameters, including the molecular oscillation strength, molecular absorption line width, molecular shell thickness, refractive index of the surrounding environment, and separation between the core and shell, on the resonance coupling behaviors were scrutinized. In parti...

Yu Zhang

Papers

Room-Temperature Strong Light–Matter Interaction with Active Control in Single Plasmonic Nanorod Coupled with Two-Dimensional Atomic Crystals

Optimize the field emission character of a vertical few-layer graphene sheet by manipulating the morphology.

Morphology Effect of Vertical Graphene on the High Performance of Supercapacitor Electrode

Enhanced Performance of a Monolayer MoS2/WSe2 Heterojunction as a Photoelectrochemical Cathode

Resonance Coupling in Silicon Nanosphere–J-Aggregate Heterostructures