Breathing modes in few-layer MoTe2_2 activated by h-BN encapsulation

The encapsulation of few-layer transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) in hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) is known to improve significantly their optical and electronic properties. However, it may be expected that the h-BN encapsulation may affect also vibration properties of TMDs due to an atomically flat surface of h-BN layers. In order to study its effect on interlayer interactions in few-layer TMDs, we investigate low-energy Raman scattering spectra of bi- and trilayer MoTe$_2$. Surprisingly, three breathing modes are observed in the Raman spectra of the structures deposited on or encapsulated in h-BN as compared to a single breathing mode for the flakes deposited on a SiO$_2$/Si substrate. The shear mode is not affected by changing the MoTe$_2$ environment. The emerged structure of breathing modes is ascribed to the apparent interaction between the MoTe$_2$ layer and the bottom h-BN flake. The structure becomes visible due to a high-quality surface of the former flake. Consequently, the observed triple structure of breathing modes originates from the combination modes due to interlayer and layer-substrate interactions. Our results confirm that the h-BN encapsulation affects substantially vibration properties of layered materials.Comment: 10 pages, 9 figure

Single-photon emission from the natural quantum dots in the InAs/GaAs wetting layer

Time-resolved microphotoluminescence study is presented for quantum dots which are formed in the InAs/GaAs wetting layer. These dots are due to fluctuations of In composition in the wetting layer. They show spectrally sharp luminescence lines with a low spatial density. We identify lines related to neutral exciton and biexciton as well as trions. Exciton emission antibunching (second order correlation value of g^2(0)=0.16) and biexciton-exciton emission cascade prove non-classical emission from the dots and confirm their potential as single photon sources

Neutral and charged dark excitons in monolayer WS2_2

Low temperature and polarization resolved magneto-photoluminescence experiments are used to investigate the properties of dark excitons and dark trions in a monolayer of WS$_2$ encapsulated in hexagonal BN (hBN). We find that this system is an $n$-type doped semiconductor and that dark trions dominate the emission spectrum. In line with previous studies on WSe$_2$, we identify the Coulomb exchange interaction coupled neutral dark and grey excitons through their polarization properties, while an analogous effect is not observed for dark trions. Applying the magnetic field in both perpendicular and parallel configurations with respect to the monolayer plane, we determine the g-factor of dark trions to be $g\sim$-8.6. Their decay rate is close to 0.5 ns, more than 2 orders of magnitude longer than that of bright excitons.Comment: 6 pages, 6 figures, supplemental materia

Raman scattering from the bulk inactive out-of-plane B2g1^{1}_{2\text{g}} mode in few-layer MoTe2_{2}

Raman scattering from the out-of-plane vibrational modes (A$_{1\text{g}}$/A'$_{1}$), which originate from the bulk-inactive out-of-plane B$^{1}_{2\text{g}}$ mode, are studied in few-layer MoTe$_{2}$. Temperature-dependent measurements reveal a doublet structure of the corresponding peaks in the Raman scattering spectra of tetralayer and pentalayer samples. A strong enhancement of their lower energy components is recorded at low temperature for 1.91 eV and 1.96 eV laser excitation. We discuss the attribution of the peaks to the inner modes of the respective Raman-active vibrations. The temperature evolution of their intensity strongly suggests a resonant character of the employed excitation, which leads to the mode enhancement at low temperature. The resonance of the laser light with the singularity of the electronic density of states at the $M$ point of the Brillouin zone in MoTe$_{2}$ is proposed to be responsible for the observed effects.Comment: 10 pages, 5 figure

Pressure-driven phase transitions in bulk HfS2_2

The effect of hydrostatic pressure up to 27 GPa on the Raman scattering (RS) in bulk HfS$_2$ is investigated. There are two transformations of RS spectra, which take place during compression at pressure between 5.7 GPa and 9.8 GPa as well as between 12.8 GPa and 15.2 GPa. Seven vibrational modes can be observed after the transformation, as compared to four modes before the transformation. The observed change suggests structural change in the material of yet unknown nature. The frequencies of the RS modes observed above the transformation change linearly with pressure and corresponding pressure coefficients have been determined. The other transition manifests itself as a change in the RS lineshape. While a series of well-defined RS modes are observed under pressure below the transition, broad spectral bands can be seen at higher pressure. The overall lineshape of the spectra resembles that of disordered materials. The lineshape does not change during decompression, which suggests permanent nature of the high-pressure transition.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

Energy spectrum of two-dimensional excitons in a non-uniform dielectric medium

We demonstrate that, in monolayers (MLs) of semiconducting transition metal dichalcogenides, the $s$-type Rydberg series of excitonic states follows a simple energy ladder: $\epsilon_n=-Ry^*/(n+\delta)^2$, $n$=1,2,\ldots, in which $Ry^*$ is very close to the Rydberg energy scaled by the dielectric constant of the medium surrounding the ML and by the reduced effective electron-hole mass, whereas the ML polarizability is only accounted for by $\delta$. This is justified by the analysis of experimental data on excitonic resonances, as extracted from magneto-optical measurements of a high-quality WSe$_2$ ML encapsulated in hexagonal boron nitride (hBN), and well reproduced with an analytically solvable Schr\"odinger equation when approximating the electron-hole potential in the form of a modified Kratzer potential. Applying our convention to other, MoSe$_2$, WS$_2$, MoS$_2$ MLs encapsulated in hBN, we estimate an apparent magnitude of $\delta$ for each of the studied structures. Intriguingly, $\delta$ is found to be close to zero for WSe$_2$ as well as for MoS$_2$ monolayers, what implies that the energy ladder of excitonic states in these two-dimensional structures resembles that of Rydberg states of a three-dimensional hydrogen atom.Comment: Manuscript: 6 pages, 4 figures; SM: 11 pages, 12 figure