Magnification of Plasmon Resonances in Monolayer MoS2 via Conjugated Molecular Adsorbates

Abstract

The adsorption of carbon-conjugated molecules represents an established route to tuning the electronic and optical properties of transition-metal dichalcogenide (TMDC) monolayers. Here, we demonstrate from first principles that such a functionalization with prototypical compounds pyrene and tetracene can also enhance the magnitude of selected plasmon resonances in a MoS2 single sheet without significantly altering their energy and dispersion. Our proof-of-principle results indicate that such a magnification can be achieved by the proper alignment of the molecules with respect to the direction of the transferred momentum. The distinct signatures in the loss function of the interface compared to those of its constituents suggest not only the presence of non-negligible interactions between them but also the possibility of using electron energy loss spectroscopy to detect the presence and the orientation of molecular adsorbates on TMDCs.