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Scientists at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) discovered a new method to passivate defects in next generation optical materials to improve optical quality and enable the miniaturization of light emitting diodes and other optical elements.
“From a chemistry standpoint, we have discovered a new photocatalytic reaction using laser light and water molecules, which is new and exciting,” said Saujan Sivaram, Ph.D., lead author of the study. “From a general perspective, this work enables the integration of high quality, optically active, atomically thin material in a variety of applications, such as electronics, electro-catalysts, memory, and quantum computing applications.”
The NRL scientists developed a versatile laser processing technique to significantly improve the optical properties of monolayer molybdenum disulphide (MoS2) — a direct gap semiconductor — with high spatial resolution. Their process produces a 100-fold increase in the material’s optical emission efficiency in the areas “written” with the laser beam.
