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Two-dimensional (2D) materials are composed of atomically thin crystals with an enormous surface-to-volume ratio, and their physical properties can be easily subjected to the change of the chemical environment. Encapsulation with other layered materials, such as hexagonal boron nitride, is a common practice; however, this approach often requires inextricable fabrication processes. Alternatively, it is intriguing to explore methods to control transport properties in the circumstance of no encapsulated layer. This is very challenging because of the ubiquitous presence of adsorbents, which can lead to charged-impurity scattering sites, charge traps, and recombination centers. Here, we show that the short-circuit photocurrent originated from the built-in electric field at the MoS2 junction is surprisingly insensitive to the gaseous environment over the range from a vacuum of 1 × 10−6 Torr to ambient condition. The environmental insensitivity of the short-circuit photocurrent is attributed to the characteristic of the diffusion current that is associated with the gradient of carrier density. Conversely, the photocurrent with bias exhibits typical persistent photoconductivity and greatly depends on the gaseous environment. The observation of environment-insensitive short-circuit photocurrent demonstrates an alternative method to design device structure for 2D-material-based optoelectronic applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent discoveries of the photoresponse of molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) have shown the considerable potential of these two-dimensional transition metal dichalcogenides for optoelectronic applications. Among the various types of photoresponses of MoS2, persistent photoconductivity (PPC) at different levels has been reported. However, a detailed study of the PPC effect and its mechanism in MoS2 is still not available, despite the importance of this effect on the photoresponse of the material. Here, we present a systematic study of the PPC effect in monolayer MoS2 and conclude that the effect can be attributed to random localized potential fluctuations in the devices. Notably, the potential fluctuations originate from extrinsic sources based on the substrate effect of the PPC. Moreover, we point out a correlation between the PPC effect in MoS2 and the percolation transport behavior of MoS2. We demonstrate a unique and efficient means of controlling the PPC effect in monolayer MoS2, which may offer novel functionalities for MoS2-based optoelectronic applications in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two-dimensional (2D) materials are composed of atomically thin crystals with an enormous surface-to-volume ratio, and their physical properties can be easily subjected to the change of the chemical environment. Encapsulation with other layered materials, such as hexagonal boron nitride, is a common practice; however, this approach often requires inextricable fabrication processes. Alternatively, it is intriguing to explore methods to control transport properties in the circumstance of no encapsulated layer. This is very challenging because of the ubiquitous presence of adsorbents, which can lead to charged-impurity scattering sites, charge traps, and recombination centers. Here, we show that the short-circuit photocurrent originated from the built-in electric field at the MoS 2 junction is surprisingly insensitive to the gaseous environment over the range from a vacuum of 1 × 10 -6   Torr to ambient condition. The environmental insensitivity of the short-circuit photocurrent is attributed to the characteristic of the diffusion current that is associated with the gradient of carrier density. Conversely, the photocurrent with bias exhibits typical persistent photoconductivity and greatly depends on the gaseous environment. The observation of environment-insensitive short-circuit photocurrent demonstrates an alternative method to design device structure for 2D-material-based optoelectronic applications.