Exploration of exciton behavior in atomically thin WS₂ layers by ionic gating

The photoluminescence spectra of mono- and bilayer WS₂, gated by the ionic liquid, were systematically studied at 77 K. Interesting phenomena, such as a redshift of the exciton peaks and a change in the spectral weight of the exciton, trion, and biexciton peaks, were observed at intermediate doping levels. By increasing the doping level, all the exciton, trion, and biexciton peaks vanished, which is attributed to the phase-space filling effect and the Coulomb screening effect. The variation in the band structure, which was induced by the quantum-confined Stark effect in both the mono- and bilayer WS₂, was also studied using first-principle calculations.