Filchito Renee Bagsican

Adsorption energy of oxygen molecules on graphene and two-dimensional tungsten disulfide

Adsorption of gas molecules on the surface of atomically layered two-dimensional (2D) materials, including graphene and transition metal dichalcogenides, can significantly affect their electrical and optical properties. Therefore, a microscopic and quantitative understanding of the mechanism and dynamics of molecular adsorption and desorption has to be achieved in order to advance device applications based on these materials. However, recent theoretical calculations have yielded contradictory results, particularly on the magnitude of the adsorption energy. Here, we have experimentally determined the adsorption energy of oxygen molecules on graphene and 2D tungsten disulfide using temperature-programmed terahertz (THz) emission microscopy (TPTEM). The temperature dependence of THz emission from InP surfaces covered with 2D materials reflects the change in oxygen concentration due to thermal desorption, which we used to estimate the adsorption energy of oxygen molecules on graphene (~0.15 eV) and tungsten disulphide (~0.24 eV). Furthermore, we used TPTEM to visualize relative changes in the spatial distribution of oxygen molecules on monolayer graphene during adsorption and desorption. Our results provide much insight into the mechanism of molecular adsorption on the surface of 2D materials, while introducing TPTEM as a novel and powerful tool for molecular surface science.

Probing low-density carriers in a single atomic layer using terahertz parallel-plate waveguides

As novel classes of two-dimensional (2D) materials and heterostructures continue to emerge at an increasing pace, methods are being sought for elucidating their electronic properties rapidly, non-destructively, and sensitively. Terahertz (THz) time-domain spectroscopy is a well-established method for characterizing charge carriers in a contactless fashion, but its sensitivity is limited, making it a challenge to study atomically thin materials, which often have low conductivities. Here, we employ THz parallel-plate waveguides to study monolayer graphene with low carrier densities. We demonstrate that a carrier density of ~2 × 10(11) cm(-2), which induces less than 1% absorption in conventional THz transmission spectroscopy, exhibits ~30% absorption in our waveguide geometry. The amount of absorption exponentially increases with both the sheet conductivity and the waveguide length. Therefore, the minimum detectable conductivity of this method sensitively increases by simply increasing the length of the waveguide along which the THz wave propagates. In turn, enabling the detection of low-conductivity carriers in a straightforward, macroscopic configuration that is compatible with any standard time-domain THz spectroscopy setup. These results are promising for further studies of charge carriers in a diverse range of emerging 2D materials.

Parallel plate waveguide time domain spectroscopy to study terahertz conductivity of utltrathin materials

The newly discovered atomically thin and layered materials which host electronic system that respond to longwavelength light in extraordinary manner can lead to a major breakthrough in the field of terahertz (THz) optics and photonics. However, their low conductivities due to either low densities or low mobility make it challenging to characterize their basic THz properties with the standard spectroscopic method. Here, we develop a THz spectroscopic technique based on parallel plate waveguide (PPWG) to overcome the limitations of the conventional THz time domain spectroscopy (TDS) technique. The present method is particularly suitable to ultrathin conductive materials with low carrier density. We report in details the derivation of the dispersion equations of the terahertz wave propagation in a PPWG loaded by a thin conductive materials with zero-thickness. These dispersion equations for transverse magnetic (TM) and transverse electric (TE) waveguide modes are the core of the optical parameters extraction algorithm in the THz-PPWG-TDS analysis. We demonstrate the effectiveness of the waveguide approach by characterizing low conductive CVD graphene. The high sensitivity of THz-PPWG-TDS technique enables us to study the carrier dynamics in graphene with Drude and Drude-Smith model.