Mutual Photoluminescence Quenching and Photovoltaic Effect in Large-Area Single-Layer MoS2-Polymer Heterojunctions

Abstract

Two-dimensional transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDCs) have recently attracted attention due to their superlative optical and electronic properties. In particular, their extraordinary optical absorption and semiconducting band gap have enabled demonstrations of photovoltaic response from heterostructures composed of TMDCs and other organic or inorganic materials. However, these early studies were limited to devices at the micrometer scale and/or failed to exploit the unique optical absorption properties of single-layer TMDCs. Here we present an experimental realization of a large-area type-II photovoltaic heterojunction using single-layer molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) as the primary absorber, by coupling it to the organic π-donor polymer PTB7. This TMDC-polymer heterojunction exhibits photoluminescence intensity that is tunable as a function of the thickness of the polymer layer, ultimately enabling complete quenching of the TMDC photoluminescence. The strong optical absorption in the TMDC-polymer heterojunction produces an internal quantum efficiency exceeding 40% for an overall cell thickness of less than 20 nm, resulting in exceptional current density per absorbing thickness in comparison to other organic and inorganic solar cells. Furthermore, this work provides new insight into the recombination processes in type-II TMDC-polymer heterojunctions and thus provides quantitative guidance to ongoing efforts to realize efficient TMDC-based solar cells.

arXiv comment24 pages, 6 figures

References in corpus (17)

• Atomically thin MoS2: A new direct-gap semiconductor
• Anomalous Lattice Vibrations of Single and Few-Layer MoS2
• Synthesis of Large-Area MoS2 Atomic Layers with Chemical Vapor Deposition
• Field-effect tunneling transistor based on vertical graphene heterostructures
• Atomically thin p-n junctions with van der Waals heterointerfaces
• Ultrafast Charge Transfer in Atomically Thin MoS2/WS2 Heterostructures
• Grains and grain boundaries in highly crystalline monolayer molybdenum disulfide
• Recombination in polymer-fullerene bulk heterojunction solar cells
• Optoelectronics with electrically tunable PN diodes in a monolayer dichalcogenide
• Solar-energy conversion and light emission in an atomic monolayer p-n diode
• Photovoltaic effect in an electrically tunable van der Waals heterojunction
• Gate-tunable carbon nanotube-MoS2 heterojunction p-n diode
• Van der Waals heterojunction devices based on organohalide perovskites and two-dimensional materials
• Surface Recombination Limited Lifetimes of Photoexcited Carriers in Few-Layer Transition Metal Dichalcogenide MoS2
• Rotationally Commensurate Growth of MoS2 on Epitaxial Graphene
• Near Unity Absorption in Van der Waals Semiconductors for Ultrathin Optoelectronics
• Pronounced photovoltaic response from multi-layered transition-metal dichalcogenides PN-junctions

Cited by in corpus (6)

• Multi-Terminal Memtransistors from Polycrystalline Monolayer MoS2
• Van der Waals Materials for Atomically-Thin Photovoltaics: Promise and Outlook
• Electronic Transport in Two-Dimensional Materials
• Mechanisms of Ultrafast Charge Separation in a PTB7/Monolayer MoS2 van der Waals Heterojunction
• Valley-selective optical Stark effect probed by Kerr rotation
• Charge Separation at Mixed-Dimensional Single and Multilayer MoS2/Silicon Nanowire Heterojunctions