Large-area and bright pulsed electroluminescence in monolayer semiconductors

• Published in: Nature communications Vol. 9; no. 1; pp. 1229 - 7
• Main Authors: Lien, Der-Hsien, Amani, Matin, Desai, Sujay B., Ahn, Geun Ho, Han, Kevin, He, Jr-Hau, Ager, Joel W., Wu, Ming C., Javey, Ali
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 26.03.2018; Nature Publishing Group; Nature Portfolio
• Subjects: 140/125; 639/166/987; 639/301/357/1018; 639/624/1075/401; Chalcogenides; Chemical vapor deposition; Electrodes; Electroluminescence; Electronics industry; ENGINEERING; Graphene; Heterostructures; Humanities and Social Sciences; INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY; Light; MATERIALS SCIENCE; Metals; Molybdenum disulfide; Monolayers; multidisciplinary; Musical performances; Photoluminescence; Photons; Polarity; Science; Science (multidisciplinary); Semiconductors
• ISSN: 2041-1723; 2041-1723
• DOI: 10.1038/s41467-018-03218-8

Transition-metal dichalcogenide monolayers have naturally terminated surfaces and can exhibit a near-unity photoluminescence quantum yield in the presence of suitable defect passivation. To date, steady-state monolayer light-emitting devices suffer from Schottky contacts or require complex heterostructures. We demonstrate a transient-mode electroluminescent device based on transition-metal dichalcogenide monolayers (MoS 2 , WS 2 , MoSe 2 , and WSe 2 ) to overcome these problems. Electroluminescence from this dopant-free two-terminal device is obtained by applying an AC voltage between the gate and the semiconductor. Notably, the electroluminescence intensity is weakly dependent on the Schottky barrier height or polarity of the contact. We fabricate a monolayer seven-segment display and achieve the first transparent and bright millimeter-scale light-emitting monolayer semiconductor device. Atomically thin monolayers with high photoluminescence quantum yield are promising for optoelectronic and lighting applications. Here, the authors fabricate a transient-mode electroluminescent device to bypass the requirement of ohmic contacts for electrons and holes, and observe millimetre-scale light emission from a transparent 2D display.