Excitonic Emission in van der Waals Nanotubes of Transition Metal Dichalcogenides

Nanotubes (NTs) of transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs), were first synthesized more than a quarter of a century ago; nevertheless, many of their optical properties have so far remained basically unknown. Herein, the state of the art in the knowledge of the optical properties of TMD NTs is presented. First, general properties of multilayered crystals are evaluated, and available data on related NTs are analyzed. Then, the technology for the formation and the structural characteristics of NTs are represented, focusing on the structures synthesized by chemical transport reaction. The core of this work is the presentation of the ability of synthesized TMD NTs to emit bright photoluminescence (PL), which has been discovered recently. By means of micro-PL spectroscopy of individual tubes, we show that excitonic transitions relevant to both direct and indirect band gaps contribute to the emission spectra of the NTs despite having the dozens of monolayers in their walls. The performance of the tubes as efficient optical resonators is highlighted, where confined optical modes strongly affect the emission. Finally, a brief conclusion is presented, along with an outlook of the future studies of this novel radiative member of the NTs family, which have unique potential for different nanophotonics applications.