Proton-driven patterning of bulk transition metal dichalcogenides

Abstract

At the few-atom-thick limit, transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) exhibit a host of attractive electronic optical, and structural properties. The possibility to pattern these properties has a great impact on applied and fundamental research. Here, we demonstrate spatial control over the light emission, lattice deformation, and hydrogen storage in bulk TMDs. By low-energy proton irradiation, we create uniquely favorable conditions for the production and accumulation of molecular hydrogen just one or few monolayers beneath the crystal basal plane of bulk WS2, WSe2, WTe2, MoSe2, and MoS2 samples. H2 therein produced coalesces to form bubbles, which lead to the localized swelling of one X-M-X plane prevalently. This results eventually in the creation of atomically thin domes filled with molecular hydrogen at 10 atm. The domes emit light strongly well above room temperature and can store H2 indefinitely. They can be produced with the desired density, well-ordered positions, and size tunable from the nanometer to the micrometer scale, thus providing a template for the manageable and durable mechanical and electronic structuring of two-dimensional materials.

References in corpus (14)

• Energy gaps, topological insulator state and zero-field quantum Hall effect in graphene by strain engineering
• Local strain engineering in atomically thin MoS2
• Proton transport through one atom thick crystals
• Second harmonic microscopy of monolayer MoS2
• Band Gap Engineering with Ultralarge Biaxial Strains in Suspended Monolayer MoS2
• Robust optical emission polarization in MoS2 monolayers through selective valley excitation
• Graphene bubbles on a substrate : Universal shape and van der Waals pressure
• Sieving hydrogen isotopes through two dimensional crystals
• Strained bubbles in van der Waals heterostructures as local emitters of photoluminescence with adjustable wavelength
• Quantum Spin Hall Effect in Two-dimensional Crystals of Transition Metal Dichalcogenides
• Adhesion, Stiffness and Instability in Atomically Thin MoS2 Bubbles
• Emergent gauge fields from curvature in single layers of transition-metal dichalcogenides
• Colorimetry technique for scalable characterization of suspended graphene
• Chiral two-dimensional electron gas in a periodic magnetic field

Cited by in corpus (10)

• Variation of the fundamental band gap nature in curved two-dimensional WS2
• Strain-tunable orbital, spin-orbit, and optical properties of monolayer transition-metal dichalcogenides
• Biaxial versus uniaxial strain tuning of single-layer MoS${}_2$
• Dielectric nano-antennas for strain engineering in atomically thin two-dimensional semiconductors
• Two-dimensional crystals on adhesive substrates subjected to uniform transverse pressure
• Simultaneous Generation of Direct- and Indirect-Gap Photoluminescence in Multilayer MoS2 Bubbles
• Tailoring Photoluminescence by Strain-Engineering in Layered Perovskite Flakes
• Variant Plateau Law in Atomically Thin Transition Metal Dichalcogenide Dome Networks
• Creation and Microscopic Origins of Single-Photon Emitters in Transition Metal Dichalcogenides and Hexagonal Boron Nitride
• Tunable WS${}_2$ Micro-Dome Open Cavity Single Photon Source