Raman scattering of few-layers MoTe2

Abstract

We report on room-temperature Raman scattering measurements in few-layer crystals of exfoliated molybdenum ditelluride (MoTe2) performed with the use of 632.8 nm (1.96 eV) laser light excitation. In agreement with a recent study reported by Froehlicher et al (2015 Nano Lett.) we observe a complex structure of the out-of-plane vibrational modes , which can be explained in terms of interlayer interactions between single atomic planes of MoTe2. In the case of low-energy shear and breathing modes of rigid interlayer vibrations, it is shown that their energy evolution with the number of layers can be well reproduced within a linear chain model with only the nearest neighbor interaction taken into account. Based on this model the corresponding in-plane and out-of-plane force constants are determined. We also show that the Raman scattering in MoTe2 measured using 514.5 nm (2.41 eV) laser light excitation results in much simpler spectra. We argue that the rich structure of the out-of-plane vibrational modes observed in Raman scattering spectra excited with the use of 632.8 nm laser light results from its resonance with the electronic transition at the M point of the MoTe2 first Brillouin zone.