ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on plasmonic-nanostructure-enhanced optical properties of two-dimensional (2D) transition metal dichalcogenides (TMD) and related devices. It presents an introduction to 2D TMDs and a brief analysis of the physical process of light–matter interactions, followed by a detailed review of the resulting optical properties: absorption, photo-luminescence (PL), Raman scattering and second-harmonic generation (SHG). Efficient light absorption in 2D TMDs results in optical and optoelectronic properties that are superior or complementary to those observed in the first-discovered 2D material, graphene. For practical optical and optoelectronic devices based on 2D materials, a key challenge is to maximise light–matter interactions in the materials and enhance the resulting PL, Raman scattering and SHG. SHG, the lowest-order frequency-mixing non-linear optical process, plays an important role in frequency up-conversion in lasers and optoelectronic hybrid devices. In 2D TMDs, SHG has found several applications from microscopic and spectroscopic techniques to up-conversion lasing.
