First-Principles Investigation of the Structure and Properties of Au Nanoparticles Supported on ZnO

Optimizing optoelectronic performance: impact of polar-terminated zinc oxide on MoS2Van der Waals heterostructure

We report a study on the stability, optical absorption and modulated electronic properties of the ZnO(0001-) and MoS2Van der Waals heterostructure using density functional theory. We employed a supercell of ZnO/MoS2hybrid and specifically explored the effects of creating an interface with the O-terminated face of ZnO while considering the interlayer interaction. We observed an increase in the band gap opening of MoS2within the hybrid structure (1.37 eV) is primarily attributed to in-plane strain, with minimal contribution from the identified charge transfer occurring from MoS2to ZnO. Notably, the hybrid structure exhibits enhanced photo absorption in the visible and near-infrared regions, highlighting their significance for optoelectronic applications.

Green-Lighting the Sub-Band Gap Excitation in Two-Dimensional Zinc Oxide

Solar spectrum and sensitivity of human eyes peak at green wavelength range of visible light, and the materials that can respond to a larger part of the visible spectrum are highly sought after. Two-dimensional graphene-like zinc oxide (gZnO) is a wide band gap semiconductor, but photogeneration of electron-hole pairs in it at visible wavelengths has not been achieved so far. Here, the sub-band gap excitation in 2D zinc oxide layers covered with gold nanoparticles is reported. The sub-band gap excitation and corresponding emission are correlated with oxygen interstitials introduced by AuNP deposition in the gZnO lattice. Attachment of AuNPs on gZnO also leads to increased electron availability at oxygen sites of the gZnO lattice, which translates into greater electron availability for sub-band gap excitation. The plasmonically enhanced trap level to conduction band transition constitutes sub-band gap excitation and manifests itself in local surface potential measurements carried out using a Kelvin probe force microscope.

Improved SERS sensing on biosynthetically grown self-cleaning plasmonic ZnO nano-leaves

Schematic representation of SERS and self-cleaning features of biosynthetically grown ZA nano-hybrids.