Photoluminescence of monolayer transition metal dichalcogenides integrated with VO2

Integrating a phase transition material with two-dimensional semiconductors can provide a route towards tunable opto-electronic metamaterials. Here, we integrate monolayer transition metal dichalcogenides with vanadium dioxide (VO2) thin films grown via molecular beam epitaxy to form a 2D/3D heterostructure. Vanadium dioxide undergoes an insulator-to-metal transition at 60–70 °C, which changes the band alignment between MoS2 and VO2 from a semiconductor–insulator junction to a semiconductor–metal junction. By switching VO2 between insulating and metallic phases, the modulation of photoluminescence emission in the 2D semiconductors was observed. This study demonstrates the feasibility to combine TMDs and functional oxides to create unconventional hybrid optoelectronic properties derived from 2D semiconductors that are linked to functional properties of oxides through proximity coupling.