High Photovoltaic Quantum Efficiency in Ultrathin van der Waals Heterostructures

We report experimental measurements for ultrathin (< 15 nm) van der Waals heterostructures exhibiting external quantum efficiencies exceeding 50%, and show that these structures can achieve experimental absorbance > 90%. By coupling electromagnetic simulations and experimental measurements, we show that pn WSe2/MoS2 heterojunctions with vertical carrier collection can have internal photocarrier collection efficiencies exceeding 70%.Comment: ACS Nano, 2017. Manuscript (25 pages, 7 figures) plus supporting information (7 pages, 4 figures

Van der Waals Materials for Atomically-Thin Photovoltaics: Promise and Outlook

Two-dimensional (2D) semiconductors provide a unique opportunity for optoelectronics due to their layered atomic structure, electronic and optical properties. To date, a majority of the application-oriented research in this field has been focused on field-effect electronics as well as photodetectors and light emitting diodes. Here we present a perspective on the use of 2D semiconductors for photovoltaic applications. We discuss photonic device designs that enable light trapping in nanometer-thickness absorber layers, and we also outline schemes for efficient carrier transport and collection. We further provide theoretical estimates of efficiency indicating that 2D semiconductors can indeed be competitive with and complementary to conventional photovoltaics, based on favorable energy bandgap, absorption, external radiative efficiency, along with recent experimental demonstrations. Photonic and electronic design of 2D semiconductor photovoltaics represents a new direction for realizing ultrathin, efficient solar cells with applications ranging from conventional power generation to portable and ultralight solar power.Comment: 4 figure

Mobility engineering and metal-insulator transition in monolayer MoS2

Two-dimensional (2D) materials are a new class of materials with interesting physical properties and ranging from nanoelectronics to sensing and photonics. In addition to graphene, the most studied 2D material, monolayers of other layered materials such as semiconducting dichalcogenides MoS2 or WSe2 are gaining in importance as promising insulators and channel materials for field-effect transistors (FETs). The presence of a direct band gap in monolayer MoS2 due to quantum mechanical confinement, allows room-temperature field-effect transistors with an on/off ratio exceeding 108. The presence of high-k dielectrics in these devices enhanced their mobility, but the mechanisms are not well understood. Here, we report on electrical transport measurements on MoS2 FETs in different dielectric configurations. Mobility dependence on temperature shows clear evidence of the strong suppression of charge impurity scattering in dual-gate devices with a top-gate dielectric together with phonon scattering that shows a weaker than expected temperature dependence. High levels of doping achieved in dual-gate devices also allow the observation of a metal-insulator transition in monolayer MoS2. Our work opens up the way to further improvements in 2D semiconductor performance and introduces MoS2 as an interesting system for studying correlation effects in mesoscopic systems.Comment: Submitted January 11, 201