Probing the edge-related properties of atomically thin MoS<sub>2</sub> at nanoscale.

Huang, Teng-Xiang; Cong, Xin; Wu, Si-Si; Lin, Kai-Qiang; Yao, Xu; He, Yu-Han; Wu, Jiang-Bin; Bao, Yi-Fan et al. · Nat Commun · 2019

basic_science · Level V

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Abstract

Defects can induce drastic changes of the electronic properties of two-dimensional transition metal dichalcogenides and influence their applications. It is still a great challenge to characterize small defects and correlate their structures with properties. Here, we show that tip-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (TERS) can obtain distinctly different Raman features of edge defects in atomically thin MoS<sub>2</sub>, which allows us to probe their unique electronic properties and identify defect types (e.g., armchair and zigzag edges) in ambient. We observed an edge-induced Raman peak (396 cm<sup>-1</sup>) activated by the double resonance Raman scattering (DRRS) process and revealed electron-phonon interaction in edges. We further visualize the edge-induced band bending region by using this DRRS peak and electronic transition region using the electron density-sensitive Raman peak at 406 cm<sup>-1</sup>. The power of TERS demonstrated in MoS<sub>2</sub> can also be extended to other 2D materials, which may guide the defect engineering for desired properties.