Tuning optical properties of monolayer MoS2 through the 0D/2D interfacial effect with C60 nanoparticles

Abstract

The success of 2D materials reveals that material properties are highly dependent on their dimensionality. In heterostructure engineering, therefore, the dimensionality of interface also affects the coupling and process there. Here, we construct a fresh 0D/2D interface, demonstrating that their optical properties could be tuned due to the rich surface chemistry of nanoparticles. As a preliminary example, C60 nanoparticles are introduced onto monolayer MoS2 films through spin coating featured by simple operation, uniform coverage, wafer-scale fabrication and printing capability. A combined study of morphology characterization, optical measurement and band calculations has been performed on these heterostructures. The blue-shift of MoS2 photoluminescence peak is attributed to the efficient electron transfer from MoS2 to C60. Moreover, the emission behavior of C60/MoS2 heterostructures can evolve over time, which may relate to a non-equilibrium process governed by the kinetics and thermodynamic behavior of C60 nanoparticles upon the continued illumination of laser, with some potential in future dynamic imaging and thermal/light sensing systems. We are optimistic that, by further polishing the fabrication of 0D/2D heterostructures, their interaction effect could be in an artificial-atomic designing towards the flexible optical engineering with mixed 2D and 0D quantum confinements.