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Title: The role of collective motion in the ultrafast charge transfer in van der Waals heterostructures

Abstract

Here, the success of van der Waals (vdW) heterostructures, made of graphene, metal dichalcogenides, and other layered materials, hinges on the understanding of charge transfer across the interface as the foundation for new device concepts and applications. In contrast to conventional heterostructures, where a strong interfacial coupling is essential to charge transfer, recent experimental findings indicate that vdW heterostructues can exhibit ultra-fast charge transfer despite the weak binding of the heterostructure. Using time-dependent density functional theory molecular dynamics, we identify a strong dynamic coupling between the vdW layers associated with charge transfer. This dynamic coupling results in rapid nonlinear coherent charge oscillations which constitute a purely electronic phenomenon and are shown to be a general feature of vdW heterostructures provided they have a critical minimum dipole coupling. Application to MoS2/WS2 heterostructure yields good agreement with experiment, indicating near complete charge transfer within a timescale of 100 fs.The success of van der Waals heterostructures made of graphene, metal dichalcogenides and other layered materials, hinges on the understanding of charge transfer across the interface as the foundation for new device concepts and applications. In contrast to conventional heterostructures, where a strong interfacial coupling is essential to charge transfer, recent experimental findings indicatemore » that van der Waals heterostructues can exhibit ultrafast charge transfer despite the weak binding of these heterostructures. Here we find, using time-dependent density functional theory molecular dynamics, that the collective motion of excitons at the interface leads to plasma oscillations associated with optical excitation. By constructing a simple model of the van der Waals heterostructure, we show that there exists an unexpected criticality of the oscillations, yielding rapid charge transfer across the interface. Application to the MoS2/WS2 heterostructure yields good agreement with experiments, indicating near complete charge transfer within a timescale of 100 fs.« less

Authors:
 [1];  [2];  [1];  [1];  [1];  [1];  [3]
  1. Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY (United States)
  2. Korea Basic Science Institute (KBSI), Daejeon (Korea)
  3. Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY (United States); Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE Office of Science (SC)
OSTI Identifier:
1253239
Grant/Contract Number:  
AC05-00OR22725
Resource Type:
Accepted Manuscript
Journal Name:
Nature Communications
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Volume: 7; Journal ID: ISSN 2041-1723
Publisher:
Nature Publishing Group
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
36 MATERIALS SCIENCE; physical sciences; materials science; nanotechnology; condensed matter

Citation Formats

Wang, Han, Bang, Junhyeok, Sun, Yiyang, West, Damien, Meunier, Vincent, Zhang, Shengbai, and Liang, Linagbo. The role of collective motion in the ultrafast charge transfer in van der Waals heterostructures. United States: N. p., 2016. Web. doi:10.1038/ncomms11504.
Wang, Han, Bang, Junhyeok, Sun, Yiyang, West, Damien, Meunier, Vincent, Zhang, Shengbai, & Liang, Linagbo. The role of collective motion in the ultrafast charge transfer in van der Waals heterostructures. United States. https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms11504
Wang, Han, Bang, Junhyeok, Sun, Yiyang, West, Damien, Meunier, Vincent, Zhang, Shengbai, and Liang, Linagbo. Tue . "The role of collective motion in the ultrafast charge transfer in van der Waals heterostructures". United States. https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms11504. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1253239.
@article{osti_1253239,
title = {The role of collective motion in the ultrafast charge transfer in van der Waals heterostructures},
author = {Wang, Han and Bang, Junhyeok and Sun, Yiyang and West, Damien and Meunier, Vincent and Zhang, Shengbai and Liang, Linagbo},
abstractNote = {Here, the success of van der Waals (vdW) heterostructures, made of graphene, metal dichalcogenides, and other layered materials, hinges on the understanding of charge transfer across the interface as the foundation for new device concepts and applications. In contrast to conventional heterostructures, where a strong interfacial coupling is essential to charge transfer, recent experimental findings indicate that vdW heterostructues can exhibit ultra-fast charge transfer despite the weak binding of the heterostructure. Using time-dependent density functional theory molecular dynamics, we identify a strong dynamic coupling between the vdW layers associated with charge transfer. This dynamic coupling results in rapid nonlinear coherent charge oscillations which constitute a purely electronic phenomenon and are shown to be a general feature of vdW heterostructures provided they have a critical minimum dipole coupling. Application to MoS2/WS2 heterostructure yields good agreement with experiment, indicating near complete charge transfer within a timescale of 100 fs.The success of van der Waals heterostructures made of graphene, metal dichalcogenides and other layered materials, hinges on the understanding of charge transfer across the interface as the foundation for new device concepts and applications. In contrast to conventional heterostructures, where a strong interfacial coupling is essential to charge transfer, recent experimental findings indicate that van der Waals heterostructues can exhibit ultrafast charge transfer despite the weak binding of these heterostructures. Here we find, using time-dependent density functional theory molecular dynamics, that the collective motion of excitons at the interface leads to plasma oscillations associated with optical excitation. By constructing a simple model of the van der Waals heterostructure, we show that there exists an unexpected criticality of the oscillations, yielding rapid charge transfer across the interface. Application to the MoS2/WS2 heterostructure yields good agreement with experiments, indicating near complete charge transfer within a timescale of 100 fs.},
doi = {10.1038/ncomms11504},
journal = {Nature Communications},
number = ,
volume = 7,
place = {United States},
year = {Tue May 10 00:00:00 EDT 2016},
month = {Tue May 10 00:00:00 EDT 2016}
}

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