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Distinct photoluminescence and Raman spectroscopy signatures for identifying highly crystalline WS2 monolayers produced by different growth methods

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Abstract

Transition metal dichalcogenides such as WS2 show exciting promise in electronic and optoelectronic applications. Significant variations in the transport, Raman, and photoluminescence (PL) can be found in the literature, yet it is rarely addressed why this is. In this report, Raman and PL of monolayered WS2 produced via different methods are studied and distinct features that indicate the degree of crystallinity of the material are observed. While the intensity of the LA(M) Raman mode is found to be a useful indicator to assess the crystallinity, PL is drastically more sensitive to the quality of the material than Raman spectroscopy. We also show that even exfoliated crystals, which are usually regarded as the most pristine material, can contain large amounts of defects that would not be apparent without Raman and PL measurements. These findings can be applied to the understanding of other two-dimensional heterostructured systems.

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ACKNOWLEDGMENT

A.M., M.A.N., A.L.E., N.P.L, T.E.M., and M.T. acknowledge the financial support from the U.S. Army Research Office under the MURI ALNOS project No. W911NF-11-1-0362. J.W., J.Z., and M.T. were supported by the Center for Nanoscale Science, an NSF Materials Research Science and Engineering Center, under the award DMR-1420620. A.L.E. acknowledges the support from the National Science Foundation (EFRI-1433311). D.A.C. acknowledges funding through a user project supported by ORNL’s Center for Nanophase Materials Science (CNMS) which is a Department of Energy, Office of Science User Facility. V.C. acknowledges support from The Brazilian National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq) — (249070/2013-8).

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This author was an editor of this journal during the review and decision stage. For the JMR policy on review and publication of manuscripts authored by editors, please refer to http://www.mrs.org/jmr-editor-manuscripts/.

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McCreary, A., Berkdemir, A., Wang, J. et al. Distinct photoluminescence and Raman spectroscopy signatures for identifying highly crystalline WS2 monolayers produced by different growth methods. Journal of Materials Research 31, 931–944 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1557/jmr.2016.47

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