Optical emission enhancement of bent InSe thin films

Abstract

In contrast to the majority of two-dimensional semiconductors such as transition metal dichalcogenides, indium selenide (InSe) possesses an intrinsic large out-of-plane oriented band-edge luminescent dipole. This unique anisotropic feature of band-edge optical emissions can be exploited to achieve enhanced optical signal in bent regions of materials created by geometrical modification. We herein investigate based on first-principle calculations the mechanism of this optical emission enhancement by modelling the photoluminescence processes in bent and flat regions of the InSe thin film. We propose in our model that the shorter-wavelength interband transition, labelled as transition B′, between the second-highest valence band and the bottom of conduction band plays an important role in the enhancing process. Our model robustly describes the dependence of optical emission enhancement in the bent InSe thin films on thickness, incident light orientation, and excitation photon energy. In particular, we found that when excitation photon energy is lower than the energy of transition B′, strong enhancement up to hundreds of times can be obtained by applying an incident light at an angle less than 70° to the InSe layers. Our results provide useful references for modulating luminescent properties of InSe films toward flexible optoelectronic device applications.