Revealing Optical Properties of Reduced-Dimensionality Materials at Relevant Length Scales.
Reduced-dimensionality materials for photonic and optoelectronic applications including energy conversion, solid-state lighting, sensing, and information technology are undergoing rapid development. The search for novel materials based on reduced-dimensionality is driven by new physics. Understanding and optimizing material properties requires characterization at the relevant length scale, which is often below the diffraction limit. Three important material systems are chosen for review here, all of which are under investigation at the Molecular Foundry, to illustrate the current state of the art in nanoscale optical characterization: 2D semiconducting transition metal dichalcogenides; 1D semiconducting nanowires; and energy-transfer in assemblies of 0D semiconducting nanocrystals. For each system, the key optical properties, the principal experimental techniques, and important recent results are discussed. Applications and new developments in near-field optical microscopy and spectroscopy, scanning probe microscopy, and cathodoluminescence in the electron microscope are given detailed attention. Work done at the Molecular Foundry is placed in context within the fields under review. A discussion of emerging opportunities and directions for the future closes the review.
Molecular Foundry, Materials Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California, 94720, USA.
D Frank
DF
Ogletree
Molecular Foundry, Materials Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California, 94720, USA.
P James
PJ
Schuck
Molecular Foundry, Materials Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California, 94720, USA.
Alexander F
AF
Weber-Bargioni
Molecular Foundry, Materials Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California, 94720, USA.
Nicholas J
NJ
Borys
Molecular Foundry, Materials Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California, 94720, USA.
Shaul
S
Aloni
Molecular Foundry, Materials Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California, 94720, USA.|Materials Science and Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, California, 94720, USA.
Wei
W
Bao
Molecular Foundry, Materials Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California, 94720, USA.
Sara
S
Barja
Molecular Foundry, Materials Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California, 94720, USA.
Jiye
J
Lee
Molecular Foundry, Materials Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California, 94720, USA.
Mauro
M
Melli
Molecular Foundry, Materials Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California, 94720, USA.
Keiko
K
Munechika
Molecular Foundry, Materials Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California, 94720, USA.
Stephan
S
Whitelam
Molecular Foundry, Materials Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California, 94720, USA.
Sebastian
S
Wickenburg
cathodoluminescence; exciton dynamics; near-field optical microscopy; semiconductor nanowires; transition metal dichalcogenides