Metal-Free Organic Chromophores Featuring an Ethynyl-Thienothiophene Linker with an n-Hexyl Chain for Translucent Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells.

We report the simple synthesis of two organic chromophores featuring an ethynyl-thienothiophene linker with an n-hexyl chain (CSD-03 and CSD-04), their optical and electrochemical properties, and their use as photosensitizers in dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). Our theoretical and experimental studies show that adding the second thienothiophene allows for narrowing the bandgap of the molecule and thus ensuring more light harvesting in the visible region. The efficiencies of both CSD-03 (5.46 ± 0.03%) and CSD-04 (5.20 ± 0.03%) are comparable to that of N719 (5.92 ± 0.01%) in translucent DSSCs fabricated with 5 µm-thick TiO2 photoanodes.

Tunable Electron and Hole Injection Enabled by Atomically Thin Tunneling Layer for Improved Contact Resistance and Dual Channel Transport in MoS2/WSe2 van der Waals Heterostructure.

Two-dimensional (2D) material-based heterostructures provide a unique platform where interactions between stacked 2D layers can enhance the electrical and opto-electrical properties as well as give rise to interesting new phenomena. Here, the operation of a van der Waals heterostructure device comprising of vertically stacked bilayer MoS2 and few layered WSe2 has been demonstrated in which an atomically thin MoS2 layer has been employed as a tunneling layer to the underlying WSe2 layer. In this way, simultaneous contacts to both MoS2 and WSe2 2D layers have been established by forming a direct metal-semiconductor to MoS2 and a tunneling-based metal-insulator-semiconductor contacts to WSe2, respectively. The use of MoS2 as a dielectric tunneling layer results in an improved contact resistance (80 kΩ µm) for WSe2 contact, which is attributed to reduction in the effective Schottky barrier height and is also confirmed from the temperature-dependent measurement. Furthermore, this unique contact engineering and type-II band alignment between MoS2 and WSe2 enables a selective and independent carrier transport across the respective layers. This contact engineered dual channel heterostructure exhibits an excellent gate control and both channel current and carrier types can be modulated by the vertical electric field of the gate electrode, which is also reflected in the on/off ratio of 104 for both electron (MoS2) and hole (WSe2) channels. Moreover, the charge transfer at the heterointerface is studied quantitatively from the shift in the threshold voltage of the pristine MoS2 and the heterostructure device, which agrees with the carrier recombination-induced optical quenching as observed in the Raman spectra of the pristine and heterostructure layers. This observation of dual channel ambipolar transport enabled by the hybrid tunneling contacts and strong interlayer coupling can be utilized for high-performance opto-electrical devices and applications.

Comparison of trapped charges and hysteresis behavior in hBN encapsulated single MoS2 flake based field effect transistors on SiO2 and hBN substrates.

Molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) based field effect transistors (FETs) are of considerable interest in electronic and opto-electronic applications but often have large hysteresis and threshold voltage instabilities. In this study, by using advanced transfer techniques, hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) encapsulated FETs based on a single, homogeneous and atomic-thin MoS2 flake are fabricated on hBN and SiO2 substrates. This allows for a better and a precise comparison between the charge traps at the semiconductor-dielectric interfaces at MoS2-SiO2 and hBN interfaces. The impact of ambient environment and entities on hysteresis is minimized by encapsulating the active MoS2 layer with a single hBN on both the devices. The device to device variations induced by different MoS2 layer is also eliminated by employing a single MoS2 layer for fabricating both devices. After eliminating these additional factors which induce variation in the device characteristics, it is found from the measurements that the trapped charge density is reduced to 1.9 × 1011 cm-2 on hBN substrate as compared to 1.1 × 1012 cm-2 on SiO2 substrate. Further, reduced hysteresis and stable threshold voltage are observed on hBN substrate and their dependence on gate sweep rate, sweep range, and gate stress is also studied. This precise comparison between encapsulated devices on SiO2 and hBN substrates further demonstrate the requirement of hBN substrate and encapsulation for improved and stable performance of MoS2 FETs.

Observation of negative differential resistance in mesoscopic graphene oxide devices.

The fractions of various functional groups in graphene oxide (GO) are directly related to its electrical and chemical properties and can be controlled by various reduction methods like thermal, chemical and optical. However, a method with sufficient controllability to regulate the reduction process has been missing. In this work, a hybrid method of thermal and joule heating processes is demonstrated where a progressive control of the ratio of various functional groups can be achieved in a localized area. With this precise control of carbon-oxygen ratio, negative differential resistance (NDR) is observed in the current-voltage characteristics of a two-terminal device in the ambient environment due to charge-activated electrochemical reactions at the GO surface. This experimental observation correlates with the optical and chemical characterizations. This NDR behavior offers new opportunities for the fabrication and application of such novel electronic devices in a wide range of devices applications including switches and oscillators.

Photodetector Based on Multilayer SnSe2 Field Effect Transistor.

We demonstrate a high-performance photodetector with multilayer tin diselenide (SnSe2) exfoliated from a high-quality crystal which was synthesized by the temperature gradient growth method. This SnSe2 photodetector exhibits high photoresponsivity of 5.11 × 105 A W-1 and high specific detectivity of 2.79 × 1013 Jones under laser irradiation (λ = 450 nm). We also observed a reproducible and stable time-resolved photoresponse to the incident laser beam from this SnSe2 photodetector, which can be used as a promising material for future optoelectronic applications.

Molybdenum disulfide nanoparticles decorated reduced graphene oxide: highly sensitive and selective hydrogen sensor.

In this work, we report on the hydrogen (H2) sensing behavior of reduced graphene oxide (RGO)/molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) nano particles (NPs) based composite film. The RGO/MoS2 composite exhibited a highly enhanced H2 response (∼15.6%) for 200 ppm at an operating temperature of 60 °C. Furthermore, the RGO/MoS2 composite showed excellent selectivity to H2 with respect to ammonia (NH3) and nitric oxide (NO) which are highly reactive gas species. The composite's response to H2 is 2.9 times higher than that of NH3 whereas for NO it is 3.5. This highly improved H2 sensing response and selectivity of RGO/MoS2 at low operating temperatures were attributed to the structural integration of MoS2 nanoparticles in the nanochannels and pores in the RGO layer.

Junctionless Diode Enabled by Self-Bias Effect of Ion Gel in Single-Layer MoS2 Device.

The self-biasing effects of ion gel from source and drain electrodes on electrical characteristics of single layer and few layer molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) field-effect transistor (FET) have been studied. The self-biasing effect of ion gel is tested for two different configurations, covered and open, where ion gel is in contact with either one or both, source and drain electrodes, respectively. In open configuration, the linear output characteristics of the pristine device becomes nonlinear and on-off ratio drops by 3 orders of magnitude due to the increase in "off" current for both single and few layer MoS2 FETs. However, the covered configuration results in a highly asymmetric output characteristics with a rectification of around 103 and an ideality factor of 1.9. This diode like behavior has been attributed to the reduction of Schottky barrier width by the electric field of self-biased ion gel, which enables an efficient injection of electrons by tunneling at metal-MoS2 interface. Finally, finite element method based simulations are carried out and the simulated results matches well in principle with the experimental analysis. These self-biased diodes can perform a crucial role in the development of high-frequency optoelectronic and valleytronic devices.

Tunable electrical properties of multilayer HfSe2 field effect transistors by oxygen plasma treatment.

HfSe2 field effect transistors are systematically studied in order to selectively tune their electrical properties by optimizing layer thickness and oxygen plasma treatment. The optimized plasma-treated HfSe2 field effect transistors showed a high on/off ratio improvement of four orders of magnitude, from 27 to 105, a field effect mobility increase from 2.16 to 3.04 cm2 V-1 s-1, a subthreshold swing improvement from 30.6 to 4.8 V dec-1, and a positive threshold voltage shift between depletion mode and enhancement mode, from -7.02 to 11.5 V. The plasma-treated HfSe2 photodetector also demonstrates a reasonable photoresponsivity from the visible to the near-infrared region of light.

Gate-Tunable Hole and Electron Carrier Transport in Atomically Thin Dual-Channel WSe2 /MoS2 Heterostructure for Ambipolar Field-Effect Transistors.

An ambipolar dual-channel field-effect transistor (FET) with a WSe2 /MoS2 heterostructure formed by separately controlled individual channel layers is demonstrated. The FET shows a switchable ambipolar behavior with independent carrier transport of electrons and holes in the individual layers of MoS2 and WSe2 , respectively. Moreover, the photoresponse is studied at the heterointerface of the WSe2 /MoS2 dual-channel FET.

Spin diffusion and non-local spin-valve effect in an exfoliated multilayer graphene with a Co electrode.

We fabricated a non-local spin valve with a thin layer of graphite with Co transparent electrodes. The spin-valve effect and spin precession were observed at room temperature. The magnitude of the mangetoresistance increases when temperature decreases. The spin-relaxation time, [Formula: see text], obtained from the fitting of the Hanle curves increases with decreasing temperature with a weak dependence [Formula: see text] while the spin-diffusion constant D decreases. At room temperature, [Formula: see text] exceeds 100 ps and the spin-diffusion length, [Formula: see text], is ∼2 µm. The temperature dependence of [Formula: see text] is not monotonic, and it has the largest value at room temperature. Our results show that multilayer graphene is a suitable material for spintronic devices.

High performance MoS2-based field-effect transistor enabled by hydrazine doping.

We investigated the n-type doping effect of hydrazine on the electrical characteristics of a molybdenum disulphide (MoS2)-based field-effect transistor (FET). The threshold voltage of the MoS2 FET shifted towards more negative values (from -20 to -70 V) on treating with 100% hydrazine solution with the channel current increasing from 0.5 to 25 µA at zero gate bias. The inverse subthreshold slope decreased sharply on doping, while the ON/OFF ratio increased by a factor of 100. Gate-channel coupling improved with doping, which facilitates the reduction of channel length between the source and drain electrodes without compromising on the transistor performance, making the MoS2-based FET easily scalable.

Non-degenerate n-type doping by hydrazine treatment in metal work function engineered WSe2 field-effect transistor.

We report a facile and highly effective n-doping method using hydrazine solution to realize enhanced electron conduction in a WSe2 field-effect transistor (FET) with three different metal contacts of varying work functions-namely, Ti, Co, and Pt. Before hydrazine treatment, the Ti- and Co-contacted WSe2 FETs show weak ambipolar behaviour with electron dominant transport, whereas in the Pt-contacted WSe2 FETs, the p-type unipolar behaviour was observed with the transport dominated by holes. In the hydrazine treatment, a p-type WSe2 FET (Pt contacted) was converted to n-type with enhanced electron conduction, whereas highly n-doped properties were achieved for both Ti- and Co-contacted WSe2 FETs with on-current increasing by three orders of magnitude for Ti. All n-doped WSe2 FETs exhibited enhanced hysteresis in their transfer characteristics, which opens up the possibility of developing memories using transition metal dichalcogenides.

Raman shift and electrical properties of MoS2 bilayer on boron nitride substrate.

We have fabricated a bilayer molybdenum disulphide (MoS2) transistor on boron nitride (BN) substrate and performed Raman spectroscopy and electrical measurements with this device. The characteristic Raman peaks show an upshift about 2.5 cm(-1) with the layer lying on BN, and a narrower line width in comparison with those on a SiO2 substrate. The device has a maximum drain current larger than 1 µA and a high current on/off ratio of greater than 10(8). In the temperature range of 100 K-293 K, the two terminal gate effect mobility and the carrier density do not change significantly with temperature. Results of the Raman and electrical measurements reveal that BN is a suitable substrate for atomic layer electrical devices.

Tunable Electrical and Optical Characteristics in Monolayer Graphene and Few-Layer MoS2 Heterostructure Devices.

Lateral and vertical two-dimensional heterostructure devices, in particular graphene-MoS2, have attracted profound interest as they offer additional functionalities over normal two-dimensional devices. Here, we have carried out electrical and optical characterization of graphene-MoS2 heterostructure. The few-layer MoS2 devices with metal electrode at one end and monolayer graphene electrode at the other end show nonlinearity in drain current with drain voltage sweep due to asymmetrical Schottky barrier height at the contacts and can be modulated with an external gate field. The doping effect of MoS2 on graphene was observed as double Dirac points in the transfer characteristics of the graphene field-effect transistor (FET) with a few-layer MoS2 overlapping the middle part of the channel, whereas the underlapping of graphene have negligible effect on MoS2 FET characteristics, which showed typical n-type behavior. The heterostructure also exhibits a strongest optical response for 520 nm wavelength, which decreases with higher wavelengths. Another distinct feature observed in the heterostructure is the peak in the photocurrent around zero gate voltage. This peak is distinguished from conventional MoS2 FETs, which show a continuous increase in photocurrent with back-gate voltage. These results offer significant insight and further enhance the understanding of the graphene-MoS2 heterostructure.