Enhanced UV Absorption By 2D MoS2 Nanoparticles
Authors: Almansoori Muntaser Abdelrahman , Rezk Ayman , Abdul Hadi Sabina , Nayfeh Ammar 
Published: September 2023

MoS2 is one of the promising 2D materials that caught the interest of many research fields[1], [2] due to their size-dependent tunable bandgap and attractive magnetic, optical, and electrical properties[3]. Furthermore, recently there has been a growing interest in utilizing MoS2 for solar cell applications that demonstrated measurable device enhancements[4]–[6]. Hence, there is a great interest in understanding its potential for solar energy harvesting. In this study, we show a simple method to deposit a 2D layer of MoS2 nanoparticles (NPs) on top of Aluminum-doped Zinc oxide (AZO) layer (transparent conductive oxide) and investigate its spectral response and potential for application in optoelectronic systems.
A thin film of 80 nm AZO layer was grown on a 4-inch quartz wafer using thermal Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD) with a 1:19 ratio which has shown good electrical and optical qualities for solar cell applications[7]. We deposited the MoS2 by spin-coating it on the AZO/quartz wafers for 40 sec at 1000 rpm. Incremental coating is carried on by dispersing seven layers with 500 μL of MoS2 in each step using a precise pipet to a cumulative dispersion volume of 3500 μL. The prepared samples were characterized using a UV-Vis-NIR spectrometer (Perkin Elmer Lambda) across a wide range of wavelengths (250-1200 nm) by measuring both transmittance and reflectance and calculating absorbance. Furthermore, the base AZO/quartz and quartz background signal were measured before spin-coating as reference.
The obtained data shows a high absorbance effect due to MoS2 NPs at low wavelengths (<400 nm), where it peaks around 340 nm with an approximate absorbance of ~6.7%. Upon further examination, we notice that this behavior is not linear across the whole spectrum and instead is a function of (i) wavelength and (ii) MoS2 quantity which could be partially due to the quantum confinement effect of several layers of stacked 3D MoS2 nanoparticles[8]. This phenomenon could open the possibility of utilizing this material for low-wavelength filters or UV sensing applications[9]. Also, it can potentially be utilized for quantum down-conversion[10] of high-energy photons to re-emit photons at lower energies in order to enhance solar cells’ efficiencies and reduce thermal burden; however, further investigation is needed.
[1] P. Zhou, C. Chen, X. Wang, B. Hu, and H. San, “2-Dimentional photoconductive MoS2 nanosheets using in surface acoustic wave resonators for ultraviolet light sensing,” Sensors and Actuators A: Physical, vol. 271, pp. 389–397, Mar. 2018, doi: 10.1016/j.sna.2017.12.007.
[2] H. Dong et al., “Fluorescent MoS 2 Quantum Dots: Ultrasonic Preparation, Up-Conversion and Down-Conversion Bioimaging, and Photodynamic Therapy,” ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces, vol. 8, no. 5, pp. 3107–3114, Feb. 2016, doi: 10.1021/acsami.5b10459.
[3] K. F. Mak, C. Lee, J. Hone, J. Shan, and T. F. Heinz, “Atomically Thin MoS 2 : A New Direct-Gap Semiconductor,” Phys. Rev. Lett., vol. 105, no. 13, p. 136805, Sep. 2010, doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.105.136805.
[4] Y. Tsuboi et al., “Enhanced photovoltaic performances of graphene/Si solar cells by insertion of a MoS 2 thin film,” Nanoscale, vol. 7, no. 34, pp. 14476–14482, 2015, doi: 10.1039/C5NR03046C.
[5] N. A. Abd Malek et al., “Ultra-thin MoS2 nanosheet for electron transport layer of perovskite solar cells,” Optical Materials, vol. 104, p. 109933, Jun. 2020, doi: 10.1016/j.optmat.2020.109933.
[6] Y.-J. Huang, H.-C. Chen, H.-K. Lin, and K.-H. Wei, “Doping ZnO Electron Transport Layers with MoS 2 Nanosheets Enhances the Efficiency of Polymer Solar Cells,” ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces, vol. 10, no. 23, pp. 20196–20204, Jun. 2018, doi: 10.1021/acsami.8b06413.
[7] S. Abdul Hadi, G. Dushaq, and A. Nayfeh, “Effect of atomic layer deposited Al 2 O 3 :ZnO alloys on thin-film silicon photovoltaic devices,” Journal of Applied Physics, vol. 122, no. 24, p. 245103, Dec. 2017, doi: 10.1063/1.4990871.
[8] T. Li and G. Galli, “Electronic Properties of MoS 2 Nanoparticles,” J. Phys. Chem. C, vol. 111, no. 44, pp. 16192–16196, Nov. 2007, doi: 10.1021/jp075424v.
[9] Z. Lou et al., “High-performance MoS_2/Si heterojunction broadband photodetectors from deep ultraviolet to near infrared,” Opt. Lett., vol. 42, no. 17, p. 3335, Sep. 2017, doi: 10.1364/OL.42.003335.
[10] A. P. Sunitha, P. Praveen, M. K. Jayaraj, and K. J. Saji, “Upconversion and downconversion photoluminescence and optical limiting in colloidal MoS2 nanostructures prepared by ultrasonication,” Optical Materials, vol. 85, pp. 61–70, Nov. 2018, doi: 10.1016/j.optmat.2018.08.038.
[11] Y. Wu et al., “Monolithic integration of MoS 2 -based visible detectors and GaN-based UV detectors,” Photon. Res., vol. 7, no. 10, p. 1127, Oct. 2019, doi: 10.1364/PRJ.7.001127.

Figure 1