Enhanced Photoluminescence of Multiple Two-Dimensional van der Waals Heterostructures Fabricated by Layer-by-Layer Oxidation of MoS2

Monolayer transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) are promising for optoelectronics because of their high optical quantum yield and strong light-matter interaction. In particular, the van der Waals (vdW) heterostructures consisting of monolayer TMDs sandwiched by large gap hexagonal boron nitride have shown great potential for novel optoelectronic devices. However, a complicated stacking process limits scalability and practical applications. Furthermore, even though lots of efforts, such as fabrication of vdW heterointerfaces, modification of the surface, and structural phase transition, have been devoted to preserve or modulate the properties of TMDs, high environmental sensitivity and damage-prone characteristics of TMDs make it difficult to achieve a controllable technique for surface/interface engineering. Here, we demonstrate a novel way to fabricate multiple two-dimensional (2D) vdW heterostructures alternately stacked MoS2 and MoOx with enhanced photoluminescence (PL). We directly oxidized multilayer MoS2 to consisting of a MoOx/1 L-MoS2 heterostructure with atomic layer precision through a customized oxygen plasma system. The monolayer MoS2 covered by MoOs showed an enhanced PL intensity 3.2 and 6.5 times higher in average than the as-exfoliated 1 L- and 2 L-MoS2 because of preserved crystallinity and compensated dedoping by MoOx. By using layer-by-layer oxidation and transfer processes, we fabricated the heterostructures of MoOx/MoS2 /MoOx/MoS2, where the MoS2 monolayers are separated by MoOx. The heterostructures showed the multiplied PL intensity as the number of embedded MoS2 layers increases because of suppression of the nonradiative trion formation and interlayer decoupling between stacked MoS2 layers. Our work shows a novel way toward the fabrication of 2D material-based multiple vdW heterostructures and our layer-by-layer oxidation process is beneficial for the fabrication of high performance 2D optoelectronic devices.

Automated summary

The study demonstrates a novel oxidation process to fabricate two-dimensional vdW heterostructures alternately stacked MoS2 and MoOx with enhanced photoluminescence through a customized oxygen plasma system. By layer-by-layer oxidation and transfer processes, heterostructures of MoOx/MoS2/MoOx/MoS2 were fabricated, showing increased photoluminescence intensity as the number of embedded MoS2 layers increases. This work provides a novel way for the fabrication of multiple two-dimensional vdW heterostructures based on 2D materials, and the layer-by-layer oxidation process is beneficial for the fabrication of high performance 2D optoelectronic devices.