The nature of the interface in lateral heterostructures of 2D monolayer semiconductors including its composition, size, and heterogeneity critically impacts the functionalities it engenders on the 2D system for next-generation optoelectronics. Here, we use tip-enhanced Raman scattering (TERS) to characterize the interface in a single-layer MoS2/WS2 lateral heterostructure with a spatial resolution of 50 nm. Resonant and non-resonant TERS spectroscopies reveal that the interface is alloyed with a size that varies over an order of magnitude-from 50-600 nm-within a single crystallite. Nanoscale imaging of the continuous interfacial evolution of the resonant and non-resonant Raman spectra enables the deconvolution of defect-activation, resonant enhancement, and material composition for several vibrational modes in single-layer MoS2, MoxW1-xS2, and WS2. The results demonstrate the capabilities of nanoscale TERS spectroscopy to elucidate macroscopic structure-property relationships in 2D materials and to characterize lateral interfaces of 2D systems on length scales that are imperative for devices.
@article{arxiv.2111.00135,
title = {Nanoscale Raman Characterization of a 2D Semiconductor Lateral Heterostructure Interface},
author = {Sourav Garg and J. Pierce Fix and Andrey V. Krayev and Connor Flanery and Michael Colgrove and Audrey R. Sulkanen and Minyuan Wang and Gang-Yu Liu and Nicholas J. Borys and Patrick Kung},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2111.00135},
year = {2021}
}