Type-I Energy Level Alignment at the PTCDA—Monolayer MoS 2 Interface Promotes Resonance Energy Transfer and Luminescence Enhancement

Soohyung Park, Niklas Mutz, Sergey A. Kovalenko, Thorsten Schultz, Dongguen Shin, Areej Aljarb, Lain-Jong Li, Vincent Tung, Patrick Amsalem, Emil J. W. List-Kratochvil, Julia Stähler, Xiaomin Xu, Sylke Blumstengel, Norbert Koch

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

25 Scopus citations

Abstract

Van der Waals heterostructures consisting of 2D semiconductors and conjugated molecules are of increasing interest because of the prospect of a synergistic enhancement of (opto)electronic properties. In particular, perylenetetracarboxylic dianhydride (PTCDA) on monolayer (ML)-MoS2 has been identified as promising candidate and a staggered type-II energy level alignment and excited state interfacial charge transfer have been proposed. In contrast, it is here found with inverse and direct angle resolved photoelectron spectroscopy that PTCDA/ML-MoS2 supported by insulating sapphire exhibits a straddling type-I level alignment, with PTCDA having the wider energy gap. Photoluminescence (PL) and sub-picosecond transient absorption measurements reveal that resonance energy transfer, i.e., electron–hole pair (exciton) transfer, from PTCDA to ML-MoS2 occurs on a sub-picosecond time scale. This gives rise to an enhanced PL yield from ML-MoS2 in the heterostructure and an according overall modulation of the photoresponse. These results underpin the importance of a precise knowledge of the interfacial electronic structure in order to understand excited state dynamics and to devise reliable design strategies for optimized optoelectronic functionality in van der Waals heterostructures.
Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)2100215
JournalAdvanced Science
DOIs
StatePublished - May 5 2021

Bibliographical note

KAUST Repository Item: Exported on 2021-05-12
Acknowledged KAUST grant number(s): OSR-2018-CARF/CCF-3079
Acknowledgements: This work was funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) Project No. 182087777 – SFB 951. Further support by the National Research Foundation (NRF) of Korea under Grant No. 2018M3D1A1058793 and Technology Innovation Program (No. 20012502) funded by the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy Korea, is acknowledged. V.T. and A.A. are indebted to the support from the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) Office of Sponsored Research (OSR) under Award No. OSR-2018-CARF/CCF-3079. The authors acknowledge support by the Open Access Publication Fund of Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin.

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