Hetero-interface of electrolyte/2D materials

TL;DR

This study introduces a lithium-ion solid-state electrolyte to investigate the hetero-interface with 2D materials, revealing tunable electronic properties and optical behaviors, overcoming limitations of liquid electrolytes.

Contribution

It demonstrates the use of lithium-ion solid-state electrolytes to explore electrolyte/2D material interfaces, enabling precise control and measurement of electronic and optical properties.

Findings

Significant work function tuning of TMDs via electrochemical gating.

Quantitative analysis of potential drop across the EDL.

Room temperature PL shows neutral exciton emission in monolayer WS2.

Abstract

Electrochemical gating has been demonstrated as a powerful tool to tune the physical properties of two-dimensional (2D) materials, leading to lots of fascinating quantum phenomena. However, the reported liquid-nature electrolytes (e.g, ionic liquid and ion-gel) cover the top surface of 2D materials, introduce the strain at the hetero-interface, and present sensitivity to humidity, which strongly limits the further exploration of the hetero-interface between electrolyte and 2D materials, and their wide applications for electronics and optoelectronics. Herein, by introducing a lithium-ion solid-state electrolyte, the character of the electric double layer (EDL) at hetero-interface and its effect on the optical property of transition metal chalcogenides (TMDs) have been revealed by Kelvin probe force microscopy (KPFM) and (time-resolved) photoluminescence measurements. The work function of TMDs can be strongly tailored by electrochemical gating, up to 0.7eV for WSe2 and 0.3 eV for MoS2, respectively. Besides, from the gate-dependent surface potential of TMDs with different thicknesses, the potential drop across the EDL has been quantitatively revealed. Furthermore, from the gate-dependent PL emission at room temperature, monolayer WS2 exhibits only neutral exciton emission in the whole range of gate voltage applied, which also exhibits exciton-exciton annihilation. Our results demonstrate that lithium-ion substrate is a promising alternative to explore the physics of 2D materials and the hetero-interface of electrolyte/2D materials by easily integrating both scanning probe and optical techniques.