Long tailed trions in monolayer MoS2: Temperature dependent asymmetry and resulting red-shift of trion photoluminescence spectra

Sci Rep. 2017 Oct 25;7(1):14062. doi: 10.1038/s41598-017-14378-w.

Abstract

Monolayer molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) has emerged as a model system for studying many-body physics because the low dimensionality reduces screening leading to tightly bound states stable at room temperature. Further, the many-body states possess a pseudo-spin degree of freedom that corresponds with the two direct-gap valleys of the band structure, which can be optically manipulated. Here we focus on one bound state, the negatively charged trion. Unlike excitons, trions can radiatively decay with non-zero momentum by kicking out an electron, resulting in an asymmetric trion photoluminescence (PL) peak with a long low-energy tail and peak position that differs from the zero momentum trion energy. The asymmetry of the trion PL peak and resulting peak red-shift depends both on the trion size and a temperature-dependent contribution. Ignoring the trion asymmetry will result in over estimating the trion binding energy by nearly 20 meV at room temperature. We analyze the temperature-dependent PL to reveal the effective trion size, consistent with the literature, and the temperature dependence of the band gap and spin-orbit splitting of the valence band. This is the first time the temperature-dependence of the trion PL has been analyzed with such detail in any system.

Publication types

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

MeSH terms

  • Disulfides / chemistry*
  • Electrons*
  • Luminescence*
  • Molybdenum / chemistry*
  • Optics and Photonics*
  • Quantum Theory*
  • Temperature*

Substances

  • Disulfides
  • Molybdenum
  • molybdenum disulfide