Singapore moves towards the two-dimensional semiconductor photoluminescent

At the National University of Singapore a group of researchers was able to develop a technique, which allows to improve the effect of photoluminescence on tungsten diselenide, a two-dimensional semiconductor. According to the scientists, this scoperata could pave the way for the use of this kind of semiconductor optoelectronic and photonic devices.

The tungsten diselenide is a semiconductor often only a molecule that is part of a class of materials that only recently is receiving special attention. It is dicalcogenuri of transition metals, which have the ability to convert light into electricity and vice versa, thus placing itself as ideal candidates for optoelectronic devices. Their structure and in particular their reduced thickness, however, limits the light absorption and photoluminescence properties, then limtando practical applications.

The group of researchers, led by Professor Andrew Wee of the physics department at the Faculty of Science of the NUS, has integrated monolayers of tungsten diselenide in gold substrates within small nanoscopic cracks, improving the photoluminescence of the material well-20000 times. Wang Zhuo, PhD student for the Graduate School for interative Sciences and Engineering of NUS said: "This is the first work to demonstrate the use of plasmonic nanostructures of gold to enhance the photoluminescence of tungsten diselenide, and we managed to get a unprecedented improvement in the absorption of light and the efficiency of emission of this nanomaterial ".

The researchers are now concentrating on the real effectiveness of the use of gold plasmonic to improve the optical properties of dicalcogenuri transition metals, also exploring this technique with other bidimensonali materials of the same class and with different forbidden bands, which should demonstrate different mechanisms of interaction.