Identification of defective two dimensional semiconductors by multifractal analysis: The single-layer MoS2 case study

Two dimensional semiconductor such as single-layer transition metal dichalcogenides (SL-TMD) have attracted most attentions as an atomically thin layer semiconductor materials. Typically, lattice point defects (sulfur vacancy) created by physical/chemical method during growth stages, have disadvantages on electronic properties. However, photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy is conventionally used to characterize single-layer films but until now it has not been used to show the presence of defects or estimate their population due to overall similarity of general feature PL spectra. To find a feasible and robust method to determine the presence of point defects on single layer MoS2 without changing the experimental setup, Multifractal Detrended Fluctuation Analysis (MF-DFA) and Multifractal Detrended Moving Average Analysis (MF-DMA) are applied on the PL spectrum of single layer MoS2. We compare the scaling behavior of PL spectrum of pristine and defective single layer MoS2 determined by MF-DFA and MF-DMA. Our results reveal that PL spectrum has multifractal nature and different various population of point defects (sulfur vacancy) on single layer MoS2 change dramatically multifractality characteristics (Hurst, Hölder exponents) of photoluminescence spectrum. It is exhibited creating more lattice point leads to smaller fluctuations in luminescent light that it can help to design special defect structure for light emitted devices. The relative populations of point defects are almost elucidated without utilizing expensive characterization instruments such as scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) and high resolution transmission electron microscopy (HR-TEM).