Twisted Light-Enhanced Photovoltaic Effect

Twisted light carries a defined orbital angular momentum (OAM) that can enhance forbidden transitions in atoms and even semiconductors. Such attributes can possibly lead to enhancements of the material's photogenerated carriers through improved absorption of incident light photons. The interaction of twisted light and photovoltaic material is, thus, worth studying as more efficient photovoltaic cells are essential these days due to the need for reliable and sustainable energy sources. Two-dimensional (2D) MoS₂, with its favorable optoelectronic properties, is a good platform to investigate the effects of twisted light on the photon absorption efficiency of the interacting material. This work, therefore, used twisted light as the exciting light source onto a MoS₂ photovoltaic device. We observed that while incrementing the incident light's quantized OAM at fixed optical power, there are apparent improvements in the device's open-circuit voltage (V_OC) and short-circuit current (I_SC), implying enhancements of the photoresponse. We attribute these enhancements to the OAM of light that has facilitated improved optical absorption efficiency in MoS₂. This study proposes a way of unlocking the potentials of 2D-MoS₂ and envisions the employment of light's OAM for future energy device applications.