Sub-bandgap Voltage Electroluminescence and Magneto-oscillations in a WSe2 Light-Emitting van der Waals Heterostructure

Nano Lett. 2017 Mar 8;17(3):1425-1430. doi: 10.1021/acs.nanolett.6b04374. Epub 2017 Feb 27.

Abstract

We report on experimental investigations of an electrically driven WSe2 based light-emitting van der Waals heterostructure. We observe a threshold voltage for electroluminescence significantly lower than the corresponding single particle band gap of monolayer WSe2. This observation can be interpreted by considering the Coulomb interaction and a tunneling process involving excitons, well beyond the picture of independent charge carriers. An applied magnetic field reveals pronounced magneto-oscillations in the electroluminescence of the free exciton emission intensity with a 1/B periodicity. This effect is ascribed to a modulation of the tunneling probability resulting from the Landau quantization in the graphene electrodes. A sharp feature in the differential conductance indicates that the Fermi level is pinned and allows for an estimation of the acceptor binding energy.

Keywords: Electroluminescence; acceptor; hexagonal boron nitride; magneto-oscillations; tungsten diselenide; van der Waals heterostructures.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
  • Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.