A Dual-Channel MoS2-Based Selective Gas Sensor for Volatile Organic Compounds.

Significant progress has been made in two-dimensional material-based sensing devices over the past decade. Organic vapor sensors, particularly those using graphene and transition metal dichalcogenides as key components, have demonstrated excellent sensitivity. These sensors are highly active because all the atoms in the ultra-thin layers are exposed to volatile compounds. However, their selectivity needs improvement. We propose a novel gas-sensing device that addresses this challenge. It consists of two side-by-side sensors fabricated from the same active material, few-layer molybdenum disulfide (MoS2), for detecting volatile organic compounds like alcohol, acetone, and toluene. To create a dual-channel sensor, we introduce a simple step into the conventional 2D material sensor fabrication process. This step involves treating one-half of the few-layer MoS2 using ultraviolet-ozone (UV-O3) treatment. The responses of pristine few-layer MoS2 sensors to 3000 ppm of ethanol, acetone, and toluene gases are 18%, 3.5%, and 49%, respectively. The UV-O3-treated few-layer MoS2-based sensors show responses of 13.4%, 3.1%, and 6.7%, respectively. This dual-channel sensing device demonstrates a 7-fold improvement in selectivity for toluene gas against ethanol and acetone. Our work sheds light on understanding surface processes and interaction mechanisms at the interface between transition metal dichalcogenides and volatile organic compounds, leading to enhanced sensitivity and selectivity.

Ultraviolet-Ozone Treatment: An Effective Method for Fine-Tuning Optical and Electrical Properties of Suspended and Substrate-Supported MoS2.

Ultraviolet-ozone (UV-O3) treatment is a simple but effective technique for surface cleaning, surface sterilization, doping, and oxidation, and is applicable to a wide range of materials. In this study, we investigated how UV-O3 treatment affects the optical and electrical properties of molybdenum disulfide (MoS2), with and without the presence of a dielectric substrate. We performed detailed photoluminescence (PL) measurements on 1-7 layers of MoS2 with up to 8 min of UV-O3 exposure. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations were carried out to provide insight into oxygen-MoS2 interaction mechanisms. Our results showed that the influence of UV-O3 treatment on PL depends on whether the substrate is present, as well as the number of layers. Additionally, 4 min of UV-O3 treatment was found to be optimal to produce p-type MoS2, while maintaining above 80% of the PL intensity and the emission wavelength, compared to pristine flakes (intrinsically n-type). UV-O3 treatment for more than 6 min not only caused a reduction in the electron density but also deteriorated the hole-dominated transport. It is revealed that the substrate plays a critical role in the manipulation of the electrical and optical properties of MoS2, which should be considered in future device fabrication and applications.

ZnO nanoparticles-based vacuum pressure sensor.

ZnO nanoparticles synthesized using the sol-gel technique with an average diameter of 11.5 nm are used to fabricate a vacuum pressure sensor in the range of 1 mbar to 10+3 mbar (low vacuum limit). A drastic increase in the current of the drop-casted ZnO on glass with 30 µm separated Au contacts defined by e-beam lithography is observed. The sensor reveals a linear relationship in current versus pressure in a logarithmic plot. In the range of 1 mbar to 10+3 mbar, the sensor sensitivity is found be 110. Using the resistance-time plot of the vacuum pressure, the rise (response) and fall (recovery) times of the sensor are determined as 6.6 and 15.6 s, respectively. The power consumption of the sensor is 6.5 [Formula: see text]W. The operational parameters of the proposed sensor are found be much better than those of previously reported ZnO nanostructure-based sensors and, indeed, traditional ones. The sensing mechanism of the sensor is explained by the adsorption/desorption of OH- ions from the surface of the ZnO nanoparticles, leaving behind oxygen ions combined with oxygen vacancy states.

Magnetotransport study on as-grown and annealed n- and p-type modulation-doped GaInNAs/GaAs strained quantum well structures.

We report the observation of thermal annealing- and nitrogen-induced effects on electronic transport properties of as-grown and annealed n- and p-type modulation-doped Ga1 - xInxNyAs1 - y (x = 0.32, y = 0, 0.009, and 0.012) strained quantum well (QW) structures using magnetotransport measurements. Strong and well-resolved Shubnikov de Haas (SdH) oscillations are observed at magnetic fields as low as 3 T and persist to temperatures as high as 20 K, which are used to determine effective mass, 2D carrier density, and Fermi energy. The analysis of temperature dependence of SdH oscillations revealed that the electron mass enhances with increasing nitrogen content. Furthermore, even the current theory of dilute nitrides does not predict a change in hole effective mass; nitrogen dependency of hole effective mass is found and attributed to both strain- and confinement-induced effects on the valence band. Both electron and hole effective masses are changed after thermal annealing process. Although all samples were doped with the same density, the presence of nitrogen in n-type material gives rise to an enhancement in the 2D electron density compared to the 2D hole density as a result of enhanced effective mass due to the effect of nitrogen on conduction band. Our results reveal that effective mass and 2D carrier density can be tailored by nitrogen composition and thermal annealing-induced effects. PACS: 72.00.00; 72.15.Gd; 72.80.Ey.

Bismuth-induced effects on optical, lattice vibrational, and structural properties of bulk GaAsBi alloys.

Bulk GaAs1 - xBix/GaAs alloys with various bismuth compositions are studied using power- and temperature-dependent photoluminescence (PL), Raman scattering, and atomic force microscopy (AFM). PL measurements exhibit that the bandgap of the alloy decreases with increasing bismuth composition. Moreover, PL peak energy and PL characteristic are found to be excitation intensity dependent. The PL signal is detectable below 150 K at low excitation intensities, but quenches at higher temperatures. As excitation intensity is increased, PL can be observable at room temperature and PL peak energy blueshifts. The quenching temperature of the PL signal tends to shift to higher temperatures with increasing bismuth composition, giving rise to an increase in Bi-related localization energy of disorders. The composition dependence of the PL is also found to be power dependent, changing from about 63 to 87 meV/Bi% as excitation intensity is increased. In addition, S-shaped temperature dependence at low excitation intensities is observed, a well-known signature of localized levels above valence band. Applying Varshni's law to the temperature dependence of the PL peak energy, the concentration dependence of Debye temperature (ß) and thermal expansion coefficient (α) are determined. AFM observations show that bismuth islands are randomly distributed on the surface and the diameter of the islands tends to increase with increasing bismuth composition. Raman scattering spectra show that incorporation of Bi into GaAs causes a new feature at around 185 cm-1 with slightly increasing Raman intensity as the Bi concentration increases. A broad feature located between 210 and 250 cm-1 is also observed and its intensity increases with increasing Bi content. Furthermore, the forbidden transverse optical (TO) mode becomes more pronounced for the samples with higher bismuth composition, which can be attributed to the effect of Bi-induced disorders on crystal symmetry. PACS: 78.55Cr 78.55-m 78.20-e 78.30-j.

Excitation energy-dependent nature of Raman scattering spectrum in GaInNAs/GaAs quantum well structures.

The excitation energy-dependent nature of Raman scattering spectrum, vibration, electronic or both, has been studied using different excitation sources on as-grown and annealed n- and p-type modulation-doped Ga1 - xInxNyAs1 - y/GaAs quantum well structures. The samples were grown by molecular beam technique with different N concentrations (y = 0%, 0.9%, 1.2%, 1.7%) at the same In concentration of 32%. Micro-Raman measurements have been carried out using 532 and 758 nm lines of diode lasers, and the 1064 nm line of the Nd-YAG laser has been used for Fourier transform-Raman scattering measurements. Raman scattering measurements with different excitation sources have revealed that the excitation energy is the decisive mechanism on the nature of the Raman scattering spectrum. When the excitation energy is close to the electronic band gap energy of any constituent semiconductor materials in the sample, electronic transition dominates the spectrum, leading to a very broad peak. In the condition that the excitation energy is much higher than the band gap energy, only vibrational modes contribute to the Raman scattering spectrum of the samples. Line shapes of the Raman scattering spectrum with the 785 and 1064 nm lines of lasers have been observed to be very broad peaks, whose absolute peak energy values are in good agreement with the ones obtained from photoluminescence measurements. On the other hand, Raman scattering spectrum with the 532 nm line has exhibited only vibrational modes. As a complementary tool of Raman scattering measurements with the excitation source of 532 nm, which shows weak vibrational transitions, attenuated total reflectance infrared spectroscopy has been also carried out. The results exhibited that the nature of the Raman scattering spectrum is strongly excitation energy-dependent, and with suitable excitation energy, electronic and/or vibrational transitions can be investigated.

An analysis of Hall mobility in as-grown and annealed n- and p-type modulation-doped GaInNAs/GaAs quantum wells.

In this study, we investigate the effect of annealing and nitrogen amount on electronic transport properties in n- and p-type-doped Ga0.68In0.32NyAs1 - y/GaAs quantum well (QW) structures with y = 0%, 0.9%, 1.2%, 1.7%. The samples are thermal annealed at 700°C for 60 and 600 s, and Hall effect measurements have been performed between 10 and 300 K. Drastic decrease is observed in the electron mobility of n-type N-containing samples due to the possible N-induced scattering mechanisms and increasing effect mass of the alloy. The temperature dependence of electron mobility has an almost temperature insensitive characteristic, whereas for p-type samples hole mobility is decreased drastically at T > 120 K. As N concentration is increased, the hole mobility also increased as a reason of decreasing lattice mismatch. Screening effect of N-related alloy scattering over phonon scattering in n-type samples may be the reason of the temperature-insensitive electron mobility. At low temperature regime, hole mobility is higher than electron mobility by a factor of 3 to 4. However, at high temperatures (T > 120 K), the mobility of p-type samples is restricted by the scattering of the optical phonons. Because the valance band discontinuity is smaller compared to the conduction band, thermionic transport of holes from QW to the barrier material, GaAs, also contributes to the mobility at high temperatures that results in a decrease in mobility. The hole mobility results of as-grown samples do not show a systematic behavior, while annealed samples do, depending on N concentration. Thermal annealing does not show a significant improvement of electron mobility.