Charge Photogeneration in Few-Layer MoS2

The 2D semiconductor MoS2 in its mono‐ and few‐layer form is expected to have a significant exciton binding energy of several 100 meV, suggesting excitons as the primary photoexcited species. Nevertheless, even single layers show a strong photovoltaic effect and work as the active material in high sensitivity photodetectors, thus indicating efficient charge carrier photogeneration. Here, modulation spectroscopy in the sub‐ps and ms time scales is used to study the photoexcitation dynamics in few‐layer MoS2. The results suggest that the primary photoexcitations are excitons that efficiently dissociate into charges with a characteristic time of 700 fs. Based on these findings, simple suggestions for the design of efficient MoS2 photovoltaic and photodetector devices are made. Few‐layer MoS2 flakes are intermediates between conventional semiconductors and excitonic nanomaterials. By femtosecond optical pump–probe spectroscopy it is shown that photoexcitation creates excitons as the primary species. The excitons efficiently dissociate into charge carriers with a time constant of 700 fs, making few‐layer MoS2 an excellent candidate for efficient photodetectors and photovoltaic devices.