Berkeley Lab Researchers Demonstrate Ultrafast Charge
Transfer in New Family of 2D Semiconductors
A new argument has just been added to the growing case for
graphene being bumped off its pedestal as the next big thing in the high-tech
world by the two-dimensional semiconductors known as MX2 materials. An
international collaboration of researchers led by a scientist with the U.S.
Department of Energy (DOE)’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley
Lab) has reported the first experimental observation of ultrafast charge
transfer in photo-excited MX2 materials. The recorded charge transfer time
clocked in at under 50 femtoseconds, comparable to the fastest times recorded
for organic photovoltaics.