Probing the interfacial interaction between monolayer molybdenum disulfide and Au nanoclusters

Coupling of plasmonic metal nanostructures on two‐dimensional materials represents one promising approach to improve their optoelectronic device performance. In this article, we systematically investigated the interfacial interactions between Au nanoclusters and monolayer molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) and the effect of Au decoration on the electrical transport and optical properties of MoS2, through the combination of in situ MoS2 field‐effect transistor device evaluation and in situ ultraviolet photoelectron spectroscopy and X‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy measurements. The in situ X‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy/ultraviolet photoelectron spectroscopy experiments revealed a weak interfacial coupling between Au nanoclusters and monolayer MoS2. The absence of strong charge transfer between Au nanoclusters and MoS2 was further confirmed by the photoluminescence and Raman measurements. It was also found that the electron charge‐carrier concentration in monolayer MoS2 weakly depended on the coverage of Au nanoclusters. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.