More optical applications for tungsten diselenide

The proof-of-concept study could lead to ultrathin, lightweight, and flexible photovoltaic cells, light emitting diodes (LEDs), and other optoelectronic devices, they claim.

Their report is one of three papers by different groups describing similar results with this material, published in the March 9 issue of Nature Nanotechnology. The MIT research was carried out by Pablo Jarillo-Herrero, the Mitsui Career Development Associate Professor of Physics, graduate students Britton Baugher and Yafang Yang, and postdoc Hugh Churchill.

Tungsten diselenide (WSe2) is part of a class of single-molecule-thick materials under investigation for possible use in new optoelectronic devices that manipulate the interactions of light and electricity. In these experiments, the MIT researchers were able to use the material to produce diodes. 

Typically, diodes are made by doping, a process of injecting other atoms into the crystal structure of a host material. By using different materials for this irreversible process, it is possible to make either of the two basic kinds of semiconducting materials, p-type or n-type.