Bright monolayer tungsten disulfide via exciton and trion chemical modulations

Atomically thin transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDCs) with exceptional electrical and optical properties have drawn tremendous attention for use in novel optoelectronic applications as photodetectors, transistors, light emitters, etc. However, electron bound trions formed through the combination of neutral excitons and electrons significantly decrease the photoluminescence (PL) efficiency of TMDCs. In this study, we report a simple yet efficient chemical doping strategy to modulate the optical properties of monolayer tungsten disulfide (WS2). As a demonstrative example, a chemically doped monolayer of WS2 exhibits remarkable PL enhancement of about one order of magnitude higher than that of pristine WS2. This outstanding PL enhancement is attributed to the fact that excess electrons, which promote the formation of electron-bound trions, are reduced in number through charge transfer from WS2 to the chemical dopant. Furthermore, an improved degree of circular polarization from ∼9.0% to ∼41.5% was also observed in the chemically doped WS2 monolayer. This work describes a feasible strategy to manipulate the optical properties of TMDCs via exciton modulation, making TMDCs promising candidates for versatile semiconductor-based photonic devices.