Light-Driven Ionic and Molecular Transport through Atomically Thin Single Nanopores in MoS₂/WS₂ Heterobilayers

Area of Science:

• Materials Science
• Nanotechnology
• Physical Chemistry

Background:

• Nanofluidic transport is crucial for environmental, healthcare, and energy applications.
• Light-induced charge separation offers a novel, noninvasive driving force for ionic transport.
• Engineering van der Waals heterostructures into nanopore membranes is an emerging field.

Purpose of the Study:

• To fabricate and investigate light-driven ionic and molecular transport through nanopores in 2D material heterostructures.
• To explore the potential of photoinduced effects for active and precise control of transport phenomena.
• To demonstrate a new approach for mimicking biological ion pumping functions.

Main Methods:

• Fabrication of single nanopores in heterobilayer transition metal dichalcogenide membranes using helium ion beam irradiation.
• Experimental characterization of light-driven ionic and molecular transport.
• Computational simulations to elucidate the underlying transport mechanisms.

Main Results:

• Demonstrated successful light-driven ionic and molecular transport through atomically thin nanopores.
• Identified photoinduced near-pore electric potential difference, arising from type II band alignment (WS2/MoS2), as the driving mechanism.
• Observed a localized electric field approximately 1.5 times stronger than conventional voltage-driven modes.

Conclusions:

• Light-driven transport through van der Waals heterojunction nanopores offers enhanced spatial resolution for single-molecule detection.
• This technology paves the way for next-generation biomolecular sequencing.
• Opens new avenues for light-to-chemical energy harvesting nanosystems.