Excited state biexcitons in monolayer WSe₂ driven by vertically grown graphene nanosheets with high-density electron trapping edges

Abstract

Interface engineering in atomically thin transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) is becoming an important and powerful technique to alter their properties, enabling new optoelectronic applications and quantum devices. Interface engineering in a monolayer WSe₂ sample via introduction of high-density edges of standing structured graphene nanosheets (GNs) is realized. A strong photoluminescence (PL) emission peak from intravalley and intervalley trions at about 750 nm is observed at the room temperature, which indicated the heavily p-type doping of the monolayer WSe₂/thin graphene nanosheet-embedded carbon (TGNEC) film heterostructure. We also successfully triggered the emission of biexcitons (excited state biexciton) in a monolayer WSe₂, via the electron trapping centers of edge quantum wells of a TGNEC film. The PL emission of a monolayer WSe₂/GNEC film is quenched by capturing the photoexcited electrons to reduce the electron-hole recombination rate. This study can be an important benchmark for the extensive understanding of light–matter interaction in TMDs, and their dynamics.

Graphical abstract

Keywords

excited state biexcitons / monolayer WSe₂ / vertically graphene / electron trapping edges

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Electronic supplementary material

Supplementary materials are available in the online version of this article at https://doi.org/10.1007/s11467-022-1232-8 and https://journal.hep.com.cn/fop/EN/10.1007/s11467-022-1232-8.

Acknowledgements

The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 62104155, 52275565, 52005343, and 62204117) of China, the Natural Science Foundation of Guangdong Province (No. 2022A1515011667), and the financial support from Jiangsu Province Science Foundation for Youths (No. BK20210275), and Guangdong Kangyi Special Fund (No. 2020KZDZX1173). The authors wish to acknowledge the assistance on TEM/FIB received from the Electron Microscope Center of the Shenzhen University.

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