Plasmonic Hybrids of MoS2 and 10-nm Nanogap Arrays for Photoluminescence Enhancement

Plasmon-exciton couplings in the MoS2/AuNP plasmonic hybrid structure

The understanding and engineering of the plasmon-exciton coupling are necessary to control the innovative optoelectronic device platform. In this study, we investigated the intertwined mechanism of each plasmon-exciton couplings in monolayer molybdenum disulfide (MoS₂) and plasmonic hybrid structure. The results of absorption, simulation, electrostatics, and emission spectra show that interaction between photoexcited carrier and exciton modes are successfully coupled by energy transfer and exciton recombination processes. Especially, neutral exciton, trion, and biexciton can be selectively enhanced by designing the plasmonic hybrid platform. All of these results imply that there is another degree of freedom to control the individual enhancement of each exciton mode in the development of nano optoelectronic devices.

Biologically-Inspired Water-Swelling-Driven Fabrication of Centimeter-Level Metallic Nanogaps

Metallic nanogaps have great values in plasmonics devices. However, large-area and low-cost fabrication of such nanogaps is still a huge obstacle, hindering their practical use. In this work, inspired by the cracking behavior of the tomato skin, a water-swelling-driven fabrication method is developed. An Au thinfilm is deposited on a super absorbent polymer (SAP) layer. Once the SAP layer absorbs water and swells, gaps will be created on the surface of the Au thinfilm at a centimeter-scale. Further experimentation indicates that such Au gaps can enhance the Raman scattering signal. In principle, the water-swelling-driven fabrication route can also create gaps on other metallic film and even nonmetallic film in a low-cost way.

Recent Progress in the Synthesis of MoS2 Thin Films for Sensing, Photovoltaic and Plasmonic Applications: A Review

In the surge of recent successes of 2D materials following the rise of graphene, molybdenum disulfide (2D-MoS2) has been attracting growing attention from both fundamental and applications viewpoints, owing to the combination of its unique nanoscale properties. For instance, the bandgap of 2D-MoS2, which changes from direct (in the bulk form) to indirect for ultrathin films (few layers), offers new prospects for various applications in optoelectronics. In this review, we present the latest scientific advances in the field of synthesis and characterization of 2D-MoS2 films while highlighting some of their applications in energy harvesting, gas sensing, and plasmonic devices. A survey of the physical and chemical processing routes of 2D-MoS2 is presented first, followed by a detailed description and listing of the most relevant characterization techniques used to study the MoS2 nanomaterial as well as theoretical simulations of its interesting optical properties. Finally, the challenges related to the synthesis of high quality and fairly controllable MoS2 thin films are discussed along with their integration into novel functional devices.