Transition metal dichalcogenide nanospheres for high-refractive-index nanophotonics and biomedical theranostics
Contributed by Kostya S. Novoselov; received May 23, 2022; accepted August 23, 2022; reviewed by Pavel Ginzburg and Maria Kafesaki
Significance
Transition metal dichalcogenides offer a number of exciting physical phenomena in optics, optoelectronics, and many-body physics. At the same time, these materials offer a number of opportunities for applications. One of the biggest challenges is the mass production of high-quality nanostructures based on such materials. We propose an approach based on femtosecond laser ablation in liquids for the fabrication of water-dispersed ultrastable spherical transition metal dichalcogenide (TMDC) nanoparticles of variable size (5 to 250 nm). Such nanoparticles demonstrate very exciting optical and electronic properties inherited from the TMDC crystals, due to preserved crystalline structure, which offers a unique combination of pronounced excitonic response and high refractive index value, making possible a strong concentration of electromagnetic field in nanoparticles.
Abstract
Recent developments in the area of resonant dielectric nanostructures have created attractive opportunities for concentrating and manipulating light at the nanoscale and the establishment of the new exciting field of all-dielectric nanophotonics. Transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDCs) with nanopatterned surfaces are especially promising for these tasks. Still, the fabrication of these structures requires sophisticated lithographic processes, drastically complicating application prospects. To bridge this gap and broaden the application scope of TMDC nanomaterials, we report here femtosecond laser-ablative fabrication of water-dispersed spherical TMDC (MoS2 and WS2) nanoparticles (NPs) of variable size (5 to 250 nm). Such NPs demonstrate exciting optical and electronic properties inherited from TMDC crystals, due to preserved crystalline structure, which offers a unique combination of pronounced excitonic response and high refractive index value, making possible a strong concentration of electromagnetic field in the NPs. Furthermore, such NPs offer additional tunability due to hybridization between the Mie and excitonic resonances. Such properties bring to life a number of nontrivial effects, including enhanced photoabsorption and photothermal conversion. As an illustration, we demonstrate that the NPs exhibit a very strong photothermal response, much exceeding that of conventional dielectric nanoresonators based on Si. Being in a mobile colloidal state and exhibiting superior optical properties compared to other dielectric resonant structures, the synthesized TMDC NPs offer opportunities for the development of next-generation nanophotonic and nanotheranostic platforms, including photothermal therapy and multimodal bioimaging.
Data, Materials, and Software Availability
All study data are included in the article and/or SI Appendix.
Acknowledgments
We gratefully acknowledge the financial support from the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation (agreement 075-15-2021-606). Characterization of fabricated solutions of TMDC nanoparticles (G.I.T.) was supported by the Russian Science Foundation (grant 21-79-00206). Calculation of the extinction spectra (A.A.V.) was supported by the Russian Science Foundation (grant 22-79-10312). Fabrication of TMDC nanoparticles was supported by the Russian Science Foundation (grant 19-72-30012). K.S.N. acknowledges support from the Ministry of Education (Singapore) through the Research Centre of Excellence program (award EDUN C-33-18-279-V12, Institute for Functional Intelligent Materials) and the Royal Society (grant RSRP\R\190000).
Supporting Information
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Copyright © 2022 the Author(s). Published by PNAS. This article is distributed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License 4.0 (CC BY-NC-ND).
Data, Materials, and Software Availability
All study data are included in the article and/or SI Appendix.
Submission history
Received: May 23, 2022
Accepted: August 23, 2022
Published online: September 19, 2022
Published in issue: September 27, 2022
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Acknowledgments
We gratefully acknowledge the financial support from the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation (agreement 075-15-2021-606). Characterization of fabricated solutions of TMDC nanoparticles (G.I.T.) was supported by the Russian Science Foundation (grant 21-79-00206). Calculation of the extinction spectra (A.A.V.) was supported by the Russian Science Foundation (grant 22-79-10312). Fabrication of TMDC nanoparticles was supported by the Russian Science Foundation (grant 19-72-30012). K.S.N. acknowledges support from the Ministry of Education (Singapore) through the Research Centre of Excellence program (award EDUN C-33-18-279-V12, Institute for Functional Intelligent Materials) and the Royal Society (grant RSRP\R\190000).
Notes
Reviewers: P.G., School of electrical engineering, Tel Aviv University; and M.K., Idryma Technologias kai Ereunas.
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The authors declare no competing interest.
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Transition metal dichalcogenide nanospheres for high-refractive-index nanophotonics and biomedical theranostics, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.
119 (39) e2208830119,
https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2208830119
(2022).
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