Spontaneous Polarity Flipping in a 2D Heterobilayer Induced by Fluctuating Interfacial Carrier Flows

Abstract

Polarity often refers to the charge carrier type of a semiconductor or the charging state of a functional group, generally dominating their functionality and performance. Herein we uncover a spontaneous and stochastic polarity-flipping phenomenon in monolayer WSe₂, which randomly switches between the n-type and p-type states and is essentially triggered by fluctuating carrier flows from or to the adjacent WS₂ monolayer. We have traced such fluctuating carrier flows by interfacial photocurrent measurements in a zero-bias two-terminal device. Such polarity flipping results in switching between the negative and positive correlations between the emission intensities of WS₂ and WSe₂ in the heterobilayer, which is further well-controlled by the electrostatic gate-tuning experiments in a capacitor-structure device. Our work not only demonstrates giant and intermittent carrier flows through long-range coupling in 2D heterostructures and a consequent spontaneous polarity flipping phenomenon but also provides a two-emitter system with a switchable correlation sign that could project future applications in optical logic devices.

Keywords: 2D materials; Polarity flipping; charge transfer; fluorescence blinking.