Journal of Quantitative Spectroscopy & Radiative Transfer 200 (2017) 198–205

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Journal of Quantitative Spectroscopy & Radiative Transfer

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jqsrt

Optical absorption enhancement in monolayer MoS2 using multi-order

magnetic polaritons
Linshuang Long a,b, Yue Yang a,c, Hong Ye b, Liping Wang a,∗
a
School for Engineering of Matter, Transport & Energy, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, 85287, USA
b
Department of Thermal Science and Energy Engineering, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, 230027, PR China
c
School of Mechanical Engineering and Automation, Harbin Institute of Technology (Shenzhen), Shenzhen, 518055, PR China

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Two-dimensional materials, unlike their bulk counterparts, exhibit many outstanding features, such as
Received 1 April 2017 flexibility and tunability. Among them, layered molybdenum disulfide (MoS2 ) can be applied as photode-
Revised 24 May 2017
tectors, transistors, and solar cells. However, the light absorption is much less compared to bulk material
Accepted 25 May 2017
due to the atomic thickness. In the present work, silver gratings are proposed to enhance the optical
Available online 26 May 2017
absorptance of monolayer MoS2 with plasmonic resonances. Rigorous coupled-wave analysis shows that
the maximum absorptance of the MoS2 layer itself is increased by more than 20 times to nearly 90%. The
dramatic enhancement is caused by strong coupling between the external electromagnetic waves and ar-
tificial magnetic resonance inside the structure, namely magnetic polariton (MP). Optical energy strongly
confined within the grating grooves is then absorbed by the MoS2 layer coated above. Multi-order MPs
excited within grating grooves at different depths result in either broadband or narrowband absorption
of monolayer MoS2 with tunable resonance wavelengths, which can be well predicted via generalized
inductor-capacitor circuit models.
© 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction ducting molybdenum disulfide (MoS2 ) attracts more interests than

New types of two-dimensional (2D) materials have recently
attracted lots of attention, following the success of graphene
[1–4]. 2D materials have many unique features attributed to
their reduced dimension. For example, the thickness of mono-
layer graphene is approximately 0.3 nm [5], and that of transition
metal dichalcogenide is about 0.6 nm [6]. 2D materials show many
promising properties such as tunability, high thermal conductivity,
and high electron mobility [7–9]. With these features, 2D materi-
als can be applied to the performance improvement of an exist-
ing device without incompatibility problems and the fabrication of
ultra-thin devices [10].
Transition metal dichalcogenide (TMD) is one of the most inter-
esting 2D material families [6,11,12]. The general formula of TMDs
is MX2 , where M is a transition metal such as Mo, W, Nb, or
Re, and X is chalcogen like S, Se, or Te. Among them, Mo and
W dichalcogenides possess acceptable stability and sizable band
gaps [13]. Different TMDs, such as WS2 , WSe2 , MoSe2 , and MoS2 ,
showed similar electronic structures and quality. However, due
to the relative abundance of molybdenite crystals [14], semicon-
∗
Corresponding author.
E-mail address: liping.wang@asu.edu (L. Wang).
other TMDs on their unique material properties. Also, the surface
energy of MoS2 is relatively low [15], which makes it cleavable to
be peeled as a single layer similar to graphene. As a typical TMD,
MoS2 has a direct band gap [16], high current cut-off ratios [17],
and tunable optical and electronic properties which are controlled
by strain engineering [18], doping [19], and thickness [20]. Due to
these attractive features, MoS2 can function as, or play a signifi-
cant role in field-effect tunneling transistors [21], photovoltaic cells
[22–24], photodetectors [25,26], and thermal management [27,28],
among which, high optical absorption is desired.
However, due to the ultra-thin thickness, the absorptance of
monolayer MoS2 is usually lower than 0.1 within the visible wave-
length [29]. Efforts have been made to enhance the absorption of
MoS2 . Liu et al. theoretically increased the absorptance of mono-
layer MoS2 to 0.35 by laying MoS2 layer on top of one-dimensional
photonic crystal or silver films with a spacer layer [30]. Zheng et
al. designed a cavity to improve the broadband absorption of MoS2
[31]. Wang et al. boosted the absorption of graphene and MoS2
via Fano-resonant photonic crystals [32]. In this study, we em-
ploy metallic gratings to possibly enhance the absorption of mono-
layer MoS2 . Electromagnetic field distributions and energy dissipa-
tion are plotted to understand the underlying physics. The absorp-
tion enhancement of MoS2 layer is discovered to be attributed to
the excitation of magnetic polariton (MP), which has been found

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jqsrt.2017.05.030
0022-4073/© 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
 L. Long et al. / Journal of Quantitative Spectroscopy & Radiative Transfer 200 (2017) 198–205 199

Fig. 1. Schematic for MoS2 on a 1D silver grating.

effective to improve the absorption of graphene [33,34]. Here MPs

can be excited at different orders, and either broadband or nar-
rowband absorption can be achieved. Equivalent inductor-capacitor Fig. 2. Complex electrical permittivity of monolayer MoS2 at a temperature of
(LC) circuit models including a generalized one for multi-order MPs 300 K and Fermi energy of 0 eV.

are employed to further validate the excitation of MPs and predict

the resonance conditions. The effects of the grating geometry and
where the plasma frequency ωp,MoS2 = 4.3 × 1013 rad/s and DC per-
incident directions are also discussed.
mittivity ε ∞,MoS2 = 4.44. ωj , aj , and bj are respectively resonance
frequency, oscillator strength, and damping coefficients for the jth
2. Numerical method oscillator, and their values were listed in Ref. [34]. The imaginary
part of the Gaussian term follows a typical Gaussian distribution
2.1. Structure and modeling method function as
 
A monolayer MoS2 was coated atop a one-dimensional (1D) sil-
  ( h̄ω − M )2
Im εMo
G
S2 ( ω ) = exp − (3)
ver grating to enhance the absorption of MoS2 , as shown in Fig. 1, 2σ 2
where P, b, and h represent the period, groove width, and height
where the mean M = 2.7723, standard deviation σ = 0.3089, and
of the grating, respectively. The Ag substrate below the gratings
maximum value = 23.224 [34]. The real part of the Gaus-
was considered opaque within the wavelength range of interest. A
sian part is calculated through Kramers–Kronig relation [37]. The
wavevector K represents the electromagnetic wave incident onto
real and imaginary parts of the complex electrical permittivity of
the structure at an incident polar angle θ , polarization angle ϕ ,
monolayer MoS2 at a temperature of 300 K and Fermi energy of
and azimuthal angle ψ . Polar angle θ is the angle between K and
0 eV are plotted in Fig. 2, where it can be observed that the optical
the surface normal (i.e., z direction). Polarization angle ϕ is be-
constants are highly dispersive. The dielectric functions of Ag were
tween electric field vector E and the plane of incidence defined
given by a Drude model:
by the surface normal and K. ϕ = 0° and 90° indicate the trans-
verse magnetic (TM) and transverse electric (TE) polarized waves, ωp2,Ag
respectively. Azimuthal angle ψ is between the x axis and the εAg (ω ) = ε∞,Ag − (4)
ω2 + iγ ω
plane of incidence, and is taken as ψ = 0° for the study of non-
conical incidences only. The spectral absorptance α λ of the whole where plasma frequency ωp,Ag = 1.39 × 1016 rad/s scattering rate
structure shown in Fig. 1 was obtained through α λ = 1 − Rλ − Tλ , γ = 2.7 × 1013 rad/s, and high-frequency constant ε ∞,Ag = 3.4, re-
where the spectral-directional reflectance Rλ and transmittance Tλ spectively [37].
were calculated using the rigorous coupled-wave analysis (RCWA).
Note that Tλ = 0 due to the opaqueness of Ag substrate. In RCWA, 3. Results and discussion
scattering from periodic dielectric structures is solved in a Fourier-
space where the structures and fields are represented as a sum of 3.1. Spectral absorption enhancement
spatial harmonics [33]. In this study, a total of 401 Fourier terms
were used to guarantee numerical convergence. At a temperature of 300 K and Fermi energy of 0 eV,
the spectral absorptance of a free-standing 0.65 nm-thickness
[34,38,39] monolayer MoS2 is shown in Fig. 3(a). The maximum
2.2. Optical properties
absorptance of 0.23 appears at the wavelength of λ = 0.44 μm and
two lower peaks appear within the wavelength from 0.6 to 0.7 μm.
Several models have been proposed to describe the dielectric
These absorption peaks are associated with the peaks in the di-
functions of MoS2 [20,30,34–36]. In this study, a hybrid Lorentz–
electric function of MoS2 due to the Gaussian term, the first and
Drude–Gaussian model [34] was employed, where the dielectric
second Lorentz oscillators [34]. Except for the peaks, the absorp-
function of a monolayer MoS2 consists of Lorentz–Drude (LD) and
tance of monolayer MoS2 is lower than 0.1.
Gaussian (G) terms, i.e.,
A silver grating with period P = 300 nm, groove width
εMoS2 = εMo
LD
S2 + εMoS2
G
(1) b = 50 nm, and height h = 50 nm was employed to enhance
the absorption of MoS2 . The spectral absorptance of the plain
The dielectric function from the Lorentz–Drude model follows
Ag grating without MoS2 layers for transverse magnetic (TM)
waves at normal incidence is shown in Fig. 3(a). An absorption

5
a j ω2p,MoS2
εMo peak of 0.14 at the wavelength of λ = 0.53 μm can be observed.
S2 (ω ) = ε∞,MoS2 +
LD
(2)
j=0
ω2j − ω2 − iωb j However, after the MoS2 layer is coated atop the Ag grating, the
200 L. Long et al. / Journal of Quantitative Spectroscopy & Radiative Transfer 200 (2017) 198–205
Fig. 3. (a, b) Spectral absorptance and (c) enhancement factor (the ratio of the ab-
sorptance of MoS2 on the grating over that of the free-standing layer) with different
grating heights.
absorptance of the entire structure is much higher than that of
the plain grating. The maximum absorptance is enhanced to 0.99
at the wavelength of λ = 0.58 μm, while other three minor peaks
around the wavelengths of 0.45, 0.6, and 0.65 μm still exist due to
the intrinsic absorption of MoS2 .
The absorptance of the MoS2 layer itself can be separated by
considering the Poynting vector difference through the layer [40],
as plotted in Fig. 3(b). The absorption of the MoS2 layer is dramat-
ically enhanced within the wavelength range from 0.4 to 0.7 μm,
with the maximum absorptance increased to 0.89. In addition to
the shallow grating with h = 50 nm, deep gratings with larger h
values can also be applied to enforce the absorption of MoS2 .
The spectral absorptance of the MoS2 layers coated on the deep
gratings with h = 250 or 500 nm are presented for comparison in
Fig. 3(b), where the period and the groove width of the gratings
are kept at P = 300 nm and b = 50 nm, respectively. For the MoS2
layer on the deep gratings (h = 250 and 500 nm), the absorptance
of MoS2 is narrowband with a sharp peak, while for the layer
on the shallow grating with h = 50 nm, the enhanced absorptance
is broadband, especially within the wavelength range from 0.5 to
0.65 μm.
Either the broadband or narrowband absorption has its specific
applications. For example, the narrow-band absorption/emission is
essential for optical sensors and photodetectors, while the broad-
band feature is preferred for solar energy harvesting or white light
illumination. Either type of absorption/emission can be achieved by
tuning the grating geometry. Moreover, the absorption peaks of the
MoS2 layers on deep gratings are located at different wavelengths,
which indicates good spectral tunability for wavelength-selective
applications.
An enhancement factor, defined as the ratio of the absorp-
tance of MoS2 on the grating over that of the free-standing one,
is calculated to quantify the absorption enhancement as shown in
Fig. 3(c). The enhancement factor for the shallow and deep grat-
ings can be higher than 20 around the major absorption peak,
which means that at the resonance wavelength the absorptance of
the MoS2 layer is enhanced by more than 20 times from the free-
standing layer.
3.2. Excitation of multi-order MPs
To understand the mechanism of the significant absorption en-
hancement of the MoS2 when coated atop gratings, the electro-
magnetic field distributions within the shallow grating (h = 50 nm)
at the wavelength of λ = 0.58 μm where the maximum absorptance
appears are plotted in Fig. 4(a) and (c), where the squared mag-
netic field normalized to the incident magnetic field is represented
by contours and the electric field vectors are indicated by arrows.
For the plain grating without a MoS2 layer, as shown in Fig. 4(a),
the magnetic field inside the grooves is about two orders of mag-
nitude higher than the incidence one, showing energy confinement
within the gratings. On the other hand, the electric field near the
groove forms a clockwise electrical current loop. These features
signify the excitation of magnetic polariton (MP), which is coupling
between the external electromagnetic waves and magnetic reso-
nance inside the structure [41]. The contribution of MP for confin-
ing the incident energy can be visualized through the power dis-
sipation of the structures shown in Fig. 4(b). For the plain shal-
low grating, it can be observed that energy is confined inside the
groove and mainly absorbed at the metal surface when MP is ex-
cited.
For the grating covered by MoS2 , the electromagnetic field dis-
tribution at resonance peak wavelength is plotted in Fig. 4(c),
where the similar effect of energy confinement and current loop
are observed. Comparing to Fig. 4(a) without MoS2 coating, the
field strength inside the groove with MoS2 is weaker, which sug-
gests that less energy is confined inside the groove and more
energy is absorbed by the MoS2 layer. This is confirmed by the
power dissipation shown in Fig. 4(d) with higher power density
more than two orders of magnitude at the MoS2 layer than that
at groove surfaces, indicating that the energy confined by MP is
absorbed mostly by the MoS2 layer. This phenomenon agrees with
the situation shown in Fig. 4(d). Note that the peak wavelength
of the absorptance is slightly different between the plain grating
and the covered grating as seen in Fig. 3(a). The peak shift of the
 L. Long et al. / Journal of Quantitative Spectroscopy & Radiative Transfer 200 (2017) 198–205 201

Fig. 4. (a, c, e, g) Electromagnetic field distribution and (b, d, f, h) energy dissipation at resonance peak wavelengths of the structure. (a, b) and (c, d) show the situations
of the shallow grating with h = 50 nm with and without a MoS2 layer, respectively. (e, f) and (g, h) show the situations of the deep (h = 250 nm) and deeper (h = 500 nm)
gratings with a MoS2 layer, respectively.
202 L. Long et al. / Journal of Quantitative Spectroscopy & Radiative Transfer 200 (2017) 198–205

resonance wavelength, i.e., the wavelength at which MP is excited,

will be illustrated in the next subsection.
At the peak wavelength of the deep grating (h = 250 nm), two
current loops, as plotted in Fig. 4(e), appear and accordingly, two
of strong energy confinements occur, which implies the excitation
of a higher order of MP, namely MP2. The energy dissipation in
Fig. 4(f) also confirms that most of the optical energy is absorbed
by the MoS2 layer. For the deepest grating (h = 500 nm), three cur-
rent loops appear, as shown in Fig. 4(g), indicating the existence of
the 3rd harmonic modes of MP, namely MP3. Similarly, the energy
dissipation in Fig. 4(h) shows that in addition to the concentrated
absorption within the MoS2 layer, energy is absorbed mostly on
the groove sidewalls where MPs are excited.

3.3. LC model

To analytically verify the existence of MP, an equivalent LC cir-

cuit model [42] is used to predict the resonance condition. The LC
circuit for one period of the grating covered by MoS2 is depicted
in Fig. 5(a), which consists of an inductance LAg and two parallel
capacitors CMoS2 and Cgap . The capacitance between two Ag strips
can be approximated as a parallel-plate one given by

 h = c1 εd ε0 l
Cgap = Cgap eff heff (5)
b
where C gap is the unit capacitance per effective length heff , ε d is
the relative permittivity of the filling dielectric (ε d = 1 for vacuum),
ε0 = 8.8542 × 10−12 F/m is the free-space permittivity, l is the strip
length along y direction, and c1 is the coefficient accounting for
the non-uniform charge distribution at the strip surfaces, which is
approximated to be 0.5 [43] as it may vary slightly for different
structures due to the variation in nonuniform charge distributions
[42,44].
The monolayer MoS2 is treated to be a capacitor because its real

part of the dielectric function εMo S2 is positive (as shown in Fig. 2),
and the capacitance is given by
ε  MoS2 ε0tMoS2 l
CMoS2 = (6)
b+δ
where tMoS2 = 0.65 nm is the thickness of the monolayer MoS2 . The
inductance LAg consists of two contributions, the mutual and ki-
netic parts, i.e., LAg = Lm + Lk [44,45]. The magnetic inductance is
based on the coil inductance, as
μ0 beff Fig. 5. Equivalent LC circuits for different orders of MPs. (a) MP1 within a MoS2 -
Lm = Lm heff = heff (7) covered grating with h = 50 nm. (b) MP2 within the grating with h = 250 nm. (c)
l
MP3 within the grating with h = 500 nm.
where L m is the unit magnetic inductance per effective
height, beff is the effective distance between two surfaces, and
μ0 = 4π × 10−7 N/A2 is the vacuum permeability. Note that the res- charge distribution, which equals to δ l here. ε  Ag and ε   Ag are the
onant current is considered to oscillate within a depth δ instead real and imaginary parts of the dielectric function of Ag, respec-
of at the very Ag surface. The penetration depth δ at a certain tively.
wavelength λ is obtained from δ = λ/4π κ , where κ is the ex- For MP1, the total impedance of the LC circuit depicted in
tinction coefficient of Ag. δ varies from 11 to 14 nm and is com- Fig. 5(a) is given by
parable with the groove width b, i.e., 50 nm, which means that
the influence of δ should not be neglected. Here the oscillating 1
MP1
Ztot = iωLAg − i
current is considered at the plane with an average distance of ω (CMoS2 + Cgap )
δ /2 away from the surface [41]. Therefore, the effective distance   1
yields beff = b + δ /2 + δ /2. The kinetic inductance coming from drift- = iω L m heff + L k seff − i (9)
ing electrons is given by
ω (CMoS2 + C  gap heff )
ε  Ag where the effective path length seff yields seff = 2heff + b + 2δ , and
Lk = Lk seff = −   seff (8) the effective length heff equals to the height of the grating here,
2 +ε 2 ω 2 A
ε0 εAg Ag eff
i.e., heff = h. By setting total impedance equal to zero, one can
where L k is the unit kinetic inductance per effective path length obtain the magnetic resonance frequency ωMP1 or wavelength
seff , which is the path length the induced current circulates in the λMP1 = 0.56 μm, which matches the peak wavelength of λ = 0.58 μm
open loop, and Aeff is the effective cross-sectional area for the in Fig. 3(b) from RCWA, verifying that the effect of energy confine-
induced electric current due to the skin effect and non-uniform ment in Fig. 4(c) is attributed to MP1.
 L. Long et al. / Journal of Quantitative Spectroscopy & Radiative Transfer 200 (2017) 198–205
The total impedance for the LC model of the plain grating with-
out MoS2 can be obtained by neglecting CMoS2 in Eq. (9). The cal-
culated λMP1,plain is 0.51 μm, and is close to the peak wavelength
of 0.53 μm in Fig. 3(a) obtained from RCWA. This indicates the ex-
citation of MP1 in the plain shallow grating (h = 50 nm) and also
reveals that the peak shift between the plain and covered gratings
is caused by the additional capacitance introduced by MoS2 .
For the MP2 excited in the deep grating with h = 250 nm, the
equivalent LC model is depicted in Fig. 5(b), where the model con-
sists of two separate circuits: an upper one made of a pair of
Ag slits covered by MoS2 , and a lower one composed of a shal-
low grating with Ag substrate. Note that, the upper and lower cir-
cuits should have the same resonance condition when MP2 is ex-
cited, i.e., λMP2,upper = λMP2,lower = λMP2. For the upper circuit, the
total impedance follows
  
 1
,upper = iω L m heff + L k seff − i
MP2
Ztot
ω1/2C  gap heff
1 parameters are summarized in Table 1. In Fig. 6(a), several sepa-
−i
ω (CMoS2 + 1/2C  gap heff )
It should be noted that here the effective path length for the
kinetic inductance follows seff = 2heff , and the effective length heff ,
which can be estimated in Fig. 4(e), is smaller than the height
of the grating. With an estimated effective length of heff = 2h/3,
the predicted resonance wavelength for MP2 from Eq. (10) is
λMP2,upper = 0.61 μm. For the lower circuit model as a shallow
grating, the total impedance can be obtained through Eq. (9) with
CMoS2 = 0, seff = 2heff + b + 2δ , and heff = 1/3h. The predicted MP2
resonance wavelength of the bottom circuit is λMP2,lower = 0.62 μm,
which is almost the same as λMP2,upper . The peak wavelength ob-
tained from RCWA calculation is 0.58 μm, which matches the pre-
dicted value from the LC circuit model and validates the excitation
of MP2. As a further validation, the MP2 resonance wavelengths
of the plain grating without MoS2 predicted by LC model and
calculated by RCWA method are 0.58 and 0.56 μm, respectively.
Similarly, the equivalent LC circuit model for MP3 in the
deepest grating with h = 500 nm consists of three single circuits.
As depicted in Fig. 5(c), the total impedances can be obtained
by applying corresponding seff and heff of each circuit, following
the same method for MP2, which will not be repeated here. The
resonance wavelength from the LC model for the upper circuit is
λMP3,upper = 0.65 μm with estimated heff = 2h/5, agreeing well with
the peak wavelength of 0.63 μm from RCWA. As a comparison, the
MP3 resonance wavelengths of the plain grating without MoS2 are
0.65 and 0.62 μm from LC model and RCWA method, respectively.
As a more generalized LC-circuit model, the resonance condi-
tions of multi-order MPs can be predicted by zeroing the total
impedance of the upper circuit as described in Eq. (10) but with
the effective height for mth-order as:
2
heff,m = h m≥2
2m − 1
Reversely, by taking the MP resonance wavelength from the
RCWA calculation, the generalized LC model could help to deter-
mine the MP order with given grating geometries without electro-
magnetic field distribution. Take the Ag grating with h = 500 nm
covered by MoS2 for example, whose spectral absorptance calcu-
lated by RCWA is shown in Fig. 3(b). There are two absorptance
peaks at λ = 0.63 and 0.46 μm, which respectively leads to m ≈
3 and 4 according to the generalized LC model, indicating the 3rd
and 4th orders of MP excitation. It should be noted that LC model
works well for the prediction of resonance wavelength, but not for
the bandwidth of the resonance peak. The full width at half maxi-
mum (FWHM) of the peak can be possibly predicted by a resistor-
inductor-capacitor (RLC) model as shown in Ref. [46], however,
cautions should be taken as either LC or RLC models could not
203
Table. 1.
Variables and constants for parametric study on grating dimensions.
Variable Range Constants
Grating height h h: 50–500 nm b = 50 nm, P = 300 nm, with MoS2
Groove width b b: 30–270 nm h = 50 nm, P = 300 nm, with MoS2
Grating period P P: 280–400 nm h = 50 nm, b = 50 nm, with MoS2
predict the interactions or coupling between a given MP mode and
other modes like SPP or another MP mode, which usually shifts MP
frequencies or modify its FWHM.
3.4. Geometric effects
Comparing the excitations of multi-order MPs, one can find out
that the grating height exerts a significant effect on the order of
MPs. With constant groove width and period, the effect of the
grating height is presented in Fig. 6(a), where the values of the
(10)
rate bright bands associated with different orders of MP are ob-
served, indicating strong optical absorption. The resonance bands
can be indicated by the green triangles, which represent the res-
onance wavelengths predicted by LC circuit models. According to
the prediction, the sharp peak around the wavelength of 0.46 μm
for the grating with h = 500 nm (seen in Fig. 3b) is caused by the
excitation of MP4. As seen in Fig. 6(a), an absorption peak associ-
ated with a particular order of MP could occur at any wavelength
within the visible and near-IR regime by carefully selecting the
grating height h. On the other hand, for a given wavelength where
to achieve maximum absorption in MoS2 , multiple orders of MP
could be excited by gratings with different h. Lastly, for the given
grating with fixed grating height, one or multi-order MPs can be
also excited. These results in Fig. 6(a) clearly offer a guideline for
spectrally-tunable absorption/emission by different grating heights
during design and optimization.
In addition to the grating height, the resonance wavelengths
will also vary when the groove width changes because the equiv-
alent capacitance and inductance are dependent on the width as
well. As Fig. 6(b) shows, the resonance wavelengths predicted by
LC models (green triangles) decrease as the groove width increases,
agreeing well with the RCWA results shown in bright absorption
bands.
The spectral absorptance of different grating periods was calcu-
lated by RCWA, where other parameters, i.e., the groove width and
height, were fixed. The contour plots are shown in Fig. 6(c), where
the bright part indicates the absorption peaks. The peaks predicted
from LC circuit model are plotted as green triangles in Fig. 6(c). It
is observed that the triangles from LC model match well with the
bright banding from RCWA. The period has a negligible effect on
the resonance wavelength of MPs, which is due to the fact that
(11) the total impedances for the equivalent LC circuit are independent
of the period of the grating, as given in the equations of the LC
model.
3.5. Effects of polarization angle (ϕ ) and incident polar angle (θ )
The above discussion only considered the normal incidence of
TM waves. It would be important to understand the directional
dependence of the spectrally enhanced absorption due to multi-
order MP excitations, in particular, on the polarization angle and
incident polar angle. Note that only non-conical incidence is con-
sidered here, where the incident wavevector is always perpendicu-
lar to the grating grooves (i.e., ψ = 0°). The influence of the polar-
ization angle ϕ on spectral absorptance of MoS2 covered Ag grat-
ing (P = 300 nm, b = 50 nm, and h = 50 nm) with normally incident
light (θ = 0°) is shown in Fig. 7(a). Spectral absorptance peak due to
204 L. Long et al. / Journal of Quantitative Spectroscopy & Radiative Transfer 200 (2017) 198–205
Fig. 6. Effects of the grating dimensions on the spectral absorptance of the grating
covered by MoS2 . When one parameter was under consideration, other parameters
were kept unchanged. Resonance wavelengths where MP is excited, obtained from
LC circuit model, are plotted as green triangles.
Fig. 7. Spectral absorptance of the MoS2 covered 1D Ag grating (P = 300 nm,
b = 50 nm, and h = 50 nm) as functions of (a) polarization angle at normal incidence
and incident polar angle at (b) TM and (c) TE waves.
MP1 appears with the highest magnitude at ϕ = 0° or TM polarized
waves, while no absorption enhancement or MP1 excitation is ob-
served at ϕ = 90° or TE polarized waves. For an arbitrary polariza-
tion angle between 0° < ϕ < 90°, intermediate absorption peak still
exists as the incident waves could be decomposed into both TM
and TE components. As a result, the spectral absorptance at a given
polarization angle ϕ could be simply obtained based on those at
TM and TE waves according to αλ (ϕ ) = aTM
λ cos ϕ + aλ sin ϕ .
2 TE 2
The effect of polar angle θ on the spectral absorptance of
the same MoS2 covered Ag grating is also studied. As shown in
 L. Long et al. / Journal of Quantitative Spectroscopy & Radiative Transfer 200 (2017) 198–205
Fig. 7(b) for TM polarized waves, MP1 enhanced spectral absorp-
tion clearly shows the independence on the polar angle with spec-
tral absorptance higher than 0.8 even for θ up to 75°. On the
other hand, there is no spectral enhancement at all for TE po-
larized waves shown in Fig. 7(c). This is consistent with previ-
ous studies where MP cannot be excited for TE waves but TM
waves with quasi-diffuse behavior in 1D grating structures [42,44].
If polarization-independent absorption is desired, MoS2 should be
coated onto 2D symmetric gratings where MP excitations can be
excited in both TM and TE polarizations [47,48].
4. Conclusion
Silver gratings were employed to boost the absorption of mono-
layer MoS2 . Within the visible range, the absorptance of MoS2
could be enhanced more than 20 times higher than the absorp-
tance of the free-standing layer where multi-order MPs are ex-
cited. With the energy confinement caused by multi-order MPs,
the maximum absorptance for the MoS2 layer itself can be as
high as 0.9. The excitations of multi-order MPs could achieve ei-
ther broadband or narrowband absorption and offer tunable res-
onance wavelengths. MP excitations were confirmed by LC mod-
els, which were further developed into a generalized one to predict
resonance wavelengths of multi-order MPs. The geometry study in-
dicated that grating height and groove width can tune the reso-
nance conditions. The excitation of MPs and the resulting spectral
absorption are insensitive to the incident polar angle but change
significantly with polarizations with 1D grating structures.
Acknowledgments
This work was supported by National Science Foundation un-
der grant CBET-1454698. We thank Professor Ergun Simsek at the
George Washington University for sharing the MATLAB program of
MoS2 optical constants. L.L. would like to thank China Scholarship
Council for financially supporting his visit at ASU.
References
[1] Butler SZ, Hollen SM, Cao L, Cui Y, Gupta JA, Gutierrez HR, et al. Progress,
challenges, and opportunities in two-dimensional materials beyond graphene.
ACS Nano 2013;7:2898–926.
[2] Novoselov KS, Mishchenko A, Carvalho A, Castro Neto AH. 2D materials and
van der Waals heterostructures. Science 2016;353:aac9439.
[3] Xu M, Liang T, Shi M, Chen H. Graphene-like two-dimensional materials. Chem
Rev 2013;113:3766–98.
[4] Gupta A, Sakthivel T, Seal S. Recent development in 2D materials beyond
graphene. Prog Mater Sci 2015;73:44–126.
[5] Bruna M, Borini S. Optical constants of graphene layers in the visible range.
Appl Phys Lett 2009;94:031901.
[6] Chhowalla M, Shin HS, Eda G, Li LJ, Loh KP, Zhang H. The chemistry of two-di-
mensional layered transition metal dichalcogenide nanosheets. Nature Chem
2013;5:263–75.
[7] Fiori G, Bonaccorso F, Iannaccone G, Palacios T, Neumaier D, Seabaugh A,
et al. Electronics based on two-dimensional materials. Nat Nanotechnol
2014;9:768–79.
[8] Radisavljevic B, Kis A. Mobility engineering and a metal-insulator transition in
monolayer MoS2 . Nat Mater 2013;12:815–20.
[9] Xia F, Wang H, Xiao D, Dubey M, Ramasubramaniam A. Two-dimensional ma-
terial nanophotonics. Nat Photonics 2014;8:899–907.
[10] Jariwala D, Davoyan AR, Tagliabue G, Sherrott MC, Wong J, Atwater HA. Near-u-
nity absorption in van der Waals semiconductors for ultrathin optoelectronics.
Nano Lett 2016;16:5482–7.
[11] Wilson JA, Yoffe AD. The transition metal dichalcogenides discussion and in-
terpretation of the observed optical, electrical and structural properties. Adv
Phys 1969;18:193–335.
[12] Wang QH, Kalantar-Zadeh K, Kis A, Coleman JN, Strano MS. Electronics and
optoelectronics of two-dimensional transition metal dichalcogenides. Nat Nan-
otechnol 2012;7:699–712.
[13] Ataca C, Şahin H, Ciraci S. Stable, single-layer MX2 transition-metal ox-
ides and dichalcogenides in a honeycomb-like structure. J Phys Chem C
2012;116:8983–99.
[14] Geim AK, Grigorieva IV. Van der Waals heterostructures. Nature
2013;499:419–25.
205
[15] Coleman JN, Lotya M, O’Neill A, Bergin SD, King PJ, Khan U, et al. Two-dimen-
sional nanosheets produced by liquid exfoliation of layered materials. Science
2011;331:568–71.
[16] Mak KF, Lee C, Hone J, Shan J, Heinz TF. Atomically thin MoS2 : a new direct–
gap semiconductor. Phys Rev Lett 2010;105:136805.
[17] Radisavljevic B, Radenovic A, Brivio J, Giacometti V, Kis A. Single-layer MoS2
transistors. Nat Nanotechnol 2011;6:147–50.
[18] Scalise E, Houssa M, Pourtois G, Afanas’ev V, Stesmans A. Strain-induced semi-
conductor to metal transition in the two-dimensional honeycomb structure of
MoS2 . Nano Res 2012;5:43–8.
[19] Mak KF, He K, Lee C, Lee GH, Hone J, Heinz TF, et al. Tightly bound trions in
monolayer MoS2 . Nat Mater 2013;12:207–11.
[20] Yim C, O’Brien M, McEvoy N, Winters S, Mirza I, Lunney JG, et al. Investigation
of the optical properties of MoS2 thin films using spectroscopic ellipsometry.
Appl Phys Lett 2014;104:103114.
[21] Britnell L, Gorbachev R, Jalil R, Belle B, Schedin F, Mishchenko A, et al. Field-ef-
fect tunneling transistor based on vertical graphene heterostructures. Science
2012;335:947–50.
[22] Wu YB, Yang W, Wang TB, Deng XH, Liu JT. Broadband perfect light trapping in
the thinnest monolayer graphene-MoS2 photovoltaic cell: the new application
of spectrum-splitting structure. Sci Rep 2016;6:20955.
[23] Pradhan SK, Xiao B, Pradhan AK. Enhanced photo-response in p-Si/MoS2 het-
erojunction-based solar cells. Sol Energy Mater Sol Cells 2016;144:117–27.
[24] Pospischil A, Furchi MM, Mueller T. Solar-energy conversion and light emission
in an atomic monolayer p-n diode. Nat Nanotechnol 2014;9:257–61.
[25] Lopez-Sanchez O, Lembke D, Kayci M, Radenovic A, Kis A. Ultrasensitive pho-
todetectors based on monolayer MoS2 . Nat Nanotechnol 2013;8:497–501.
[26] Chen C, Qiao H, Lin S, Luk CM, Liu Y, Xu Z, et al. Highly responsive MoS2
photodetectors enhanced by graphene quantum dots. Sci Rep 2015;5:11830.
[27] Peng J, Zhang G, Li B. Thermal management in MoS2 based integrated device
using near-field radiation. Appl Phys Lett 2015;107:133108.
[28] Ong Z-Y, Cai Y, Zhang G. Theory of substrate-directed heat dissipation for sin-
gle-layer graphene and other two-dimensional crystals. Phys Rev B 2016:94.
[29] Morozov YV, Kuno M. Optical constants and dynamic conductivities of single
layer MoS2 , MoSe2 , and WSe2 . Appl Phys Lett 2015;107:083103.
[30] Liu J-T, Wang T-B, Li X-J, Liu N-H. Enhanced absorption of monolayer MoS2
with resonant back reflector. J Appl Phys 2014:115.
[31] Zheng J, Barton RA, Englund D. Broadband coherent absorption in chirped-pla-
nar-dielectric cavities for 2D-material-based photovoltaics and photodetectors.
ACS Photonics 2014;1:768–74.
[32] Wang W, Klots A, Yang Y, Li W, Kravchenko II, Briggs DP, et al. Enhanced
absorption in two-dimensional materials via Fano-resonant photonic crystals.
Appl Phys Lett 2015;106:181104.
[33] Lee BJ, Wang LP, Zhang ZM. Coherent thermal emission by excitation of mag-
netic polaritons between periodic strips and a metallic film. Opt Express
2008;16:11328–36.
[34] Mukherjee B, Tseng F, Gunlycke D, Amara KK, Eda G, Simsek E. Complex elec-
trical permittivity of the monolayer molybdenum disulfide (MoS2 ) in near UV
and visible. Opt Mater Express 2015;5:447.
[35] Li Y, Chernikov A, Zhang X, Rigosi A, Hill HM, van der Zande AM, et al. Mea-
surement of the optical dielectric function of monolayer transition-metal
dichalcogenides:MoS2 , MoSe2 , WS2 , and WSe2 . Phys Rev B 2014:90.
[36] Li D, Song X, Xu J, Wang Z, Zhang R, Zhou P, et al. Optical properties of thick-
ness-controlled MoS2 thin films studied by spectroscopic ellipsometry. Appl
Surf Sci 2016.
[37] Zhang Z. Nano/microscale heat transfer. McGraw-Hill; 2007.
[38] Lee C, Yan H, Brus LE, Heinz TF, Hone J, Ryu S. Anomalous lattice vibrations of
single- and few-layer MoS2 . ACS Nano 2010;4:2695–700.
[39] Newaz AKM, Prasai D, Ziegler JI, Caudel D, Robinson S, Haglund RF Jr,
et al. Electrical control of optical properties of monolayer MoS2 . Solid State
Commun 2013;155:49–52.
[40] Zhao B, Zhao J, Zhang Z. Enhancement of near-infrared absorption in graphene
with metal gratings. Appl Phys Lett 2014;105:031905.
[41] Wang H, Yang Y, Wang L. Infrared frequency-tunable coherent thermal sources.
J Opt 2015;17:045104.
[42] Wang LP, Zhang ZM. Resonance transmission or absorption in deep gratings
explained by magnetic polaritons. Appl Phys Lett 2009;95:111904.
[43] Zhao B, Zhang ZM. Study of magnetic polaritons in deep gratings for thermal
emission control. J Quant Spectrosc Radiat Transfer 2014;135:81–9.
[44] Wang LP, Zhang ZM. Phonon-mediated magnetic polaritons in the infrared re-
gion. Opt Express 2011;19 A126-AA35.
[45] Zhao B, Zhao JM, Zhang ZM. Resonance enhanced absorption in a graphene
monolayer using deep metal gratings. J Opt Soc Am B 2015;32:1176–85.
[46] Sakurai A, Zhao B, Zhang ZM. Resonant frequency and bandwidth of meta-
material emitters and absorbers predicted by an RLC circuit model. J Quant
Spectrosc Radiat Transfer 2014;149:33–40.
[47] Zhao B, Wang L, Shuai Y, Zhang ZM. Thermophotovoltaic emitters based on
a two-dimensional grating/thin-film nanostructure. Int J Heat Mass Transfer
2013;67:637–45.
[48] Wang H, Wang L. Perfect selective metamaterial solar absorbers. Opt Express
2013;21(Suppl 6):A1078–93.