Inducing Strong Light–Matter Coupling and Optical Anisotropy in Monolayer MoS₂ with High Refractive Index Nanowire

Abstract

Mixed-dimensional heterostructures combine the merits of materials of different dimensions; therefore, they represent an advantageous scenario for numerous technological advances. Such an approach can be exploited to tune the physical properties of two-dimensional (2D) layered materials to create unprecedented possibilities for anisotropic and high-performance photonic and optoelectronic devices. Here, we report a new strategy to engineer the light-matter interaction and symmetry of monolayer MoS₂ by integrating it with one-dimensional (1D) AlGaAs nanowire (NW). Our results show that the photoluminescence (PL) intensity of MoS₂ increases strongly in the mixed-dimensional structure because of electromagnetic field confinement in the 1D high refractive index semiconducting NW. Interestingly, the 1D NW breaks the 3-fold rotational symmetry of MoS₂, which leads to a strong optical anisotropy of up to ∼60%. Our mixed-dimensional heterostructure-based phototransistors benefit from this and exhibit an improved optoelectronic device performance with marked anisotropic photoresponse behavior. Compared with bare MoS₂ devices, our MoS₂/NW devices show ∼5 times enhanced detectivity and ∼3 times higher photoresponsivity. Our results of engineering light-matter interaction and symmetry breaking provide a simple route to induce enhanced and anisotropic functionalities in 2D materials.