Observation of Ultrafast Interfacial Exciton Formation and Recombination in Graphene/MoS2 Heterostructure

Abstract: In this study,we combined time-resolved terahertz spectroscopy along with transient absorption spectroscopy to revisit the interlayer non-equilibrium carrier dynamics in largely lateral size Gr/MoS2 heterostructure fabricated with chemical vapor deposition method. Our experimental results reveal that, with photon-energy below the A-exciton of MoS2 monolayer, hot electrons transfer from graphene to MoS2 takes place in time scale of less than 0.5 ps, resulting in ultrafast formation of interfacial exciton in the heterostructure, subsequently, recombination relaxation of the interfacial exciton occurs in time scale of ~18 ps. A new model considering carrier heating and photogating effect in graphene is proposed to estimate the amount of carrier transfer in the heterostructure, which shows a good agreement with experimental result. Moreover, when the photon-energy is on-resonance with the A-exciton of MoS2, photogenerated holes in MoS2 are transferred to graphene layer within 0.5 ps, leading to the formation of interfacial exciton, the subsequent photoconductivity (PC) relaxation of graphene and bleaching recovery of A-exciton in MoS2 take place around ~10 ps time scale, ascribing to the interfacial exciton recombination. The faster recombination time of interfacial exciton with on-resonance excitation could come from the reduced interface barrier caused by bandgap renormalization effect. Our study provides deep insight into the understanding of interfacial charge transfer as well as the relaxation dynamics in graphene-based heterostructures, which are promising for the applications of graphene-based optoelectronic devices.