Modulated Photoluminescence of Single-Layer MoS2 via Nanostructured SrTiO3 Surface

The structure and morphology of the substrate surface play critical roles in tuning the properties of the supported two-dimension materials (2DM). In this work, a simple strategy to engineer the SrTiO3 single crystal into a trenched structure which is composed of atomically flat terraces and high steps of several nanometers is developed. Through the conventional chemical vapor deposition method, high quality single-layered MoS2 nanosheets are successfully fabricated directly on the trenched SrTiO3 (Tr-STO) substrate, which thus result in a heterostructure with well-defined interface and controllable corrugated morphology. The corrugated MoS2/Tr-STO sample displays a drastically suppressed photoluminescence as compared to those grown on atomically flat substrates. Detailed scanning probe microscopy in combination with optical spectroscopy measurements demonstrates that the photoluminescence quenching occurs exclusively in the MoS2 area carpeting the high SrTiO3 steps, which can be attributed to the significantly reduced bandgaps hence massively enriched free charges in these regions. This work not only provides a new strategy to tailor the 2DM properties by simply engineering the substrate surface corrugations, but also brings deep insights into the dependence of properties of the hybridized system on the interface morphologies.

Automated summary

This work presents a simple strategy to engineer the substrate surface morphology and fabricate a heterostructure with corrugated morphology, resulting in a suppressed photoluminescence of MoS2. The study provides insights into the dependence of the hybridized system's properties on the interface morphologies.