Focused ion beam (FIB) is an effective tool for precise nanoscale fabrication. It has recently been employed to tailor defect engineering in functional nanomaterials such as two-dimensional transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDCs), providing desirable properties in TMDC-based optoelectronic devices. However, the damage caused by the FIB irradiation and milling process to these delicate, atomically thin materials, especially in extended areas beyond the FIB target, has not yet been fully characterised. Understanding the correlation between lateral ion beam effects and optical properties of 2D TMDCs is crucial in designing and fabricating high-performance optoelectronic devices. In this work, we investigate lateral damage in large-area monolayer WS₂ caused by the gallium focused ion beam milling process. Three distinct zones away from the milling location are identified and characterised via steady-state photoluminescence (PL) and Raman spectroscopy. The emission in these three zones have different wavelengths and decay lifetimes. An unexpected bright ring-shaped emission around the milled location has also been revealed by time-resolved PL spectroscopy with high spatial resolution. Our findings open up new avenues for tailoring the optical properties of TMDCs by charge and defect engineering via focused ion beam lithography. Furthermore, our study provides evidence that while some localised damage is inevitable, distant destruction can be eliminated by reducing the ion beam current. It paves the way for the use of FIB to create nanostructures in 2D TMDCs, as well as the design and realisation of optoelectrical devices on a wafer scale.

Significant progress has been made in two-dimensional material-based sensing devices over the past decade. Organic vapor sensors, particularly those using graphene and transition metal dichalcogenides as key components, have demonstrated excellent sensitivity. These sensors are highly active because all the atoms in the ultra-thin layers are exposed to volatile compounds. However, their selectivity needs improvement. We propose a novel gas-sensing device that addresses this challenge. It consists of two side-by-side sensors fabricated from the same active material, few-layer molybdenum disulfide (MoS₂), for detecting volatile organic compounds like alcohol, acetone, and toluene. To create a dual-channel sensor, we introduce a simple step into the conventional 2D material sensor fabrication process. This step involves treating one-half of the few-layer MoS₂ using ultraviolet–ozone (UV-O₃) treatment. The responses of pristine few-layer MoS₂ sensors to 3000 ppm of ethanol, acetone, and toluene gases are 18%, 3.5%, and 49%, respectively. The UV-O₃-treated few-layer MoS₂-based sensors show responses of 13.4%, 3.1%, and 6.7%, respectively. This dual-channel sensing device demonstrates a 7-fold improvement in selectivity for toluene gas against ethanol and acetone. Our work sheds light on understanding surface processes and interaction mechanisms at the interface between transition metal dichalcogenides and volatile organic compounds, leading to enhanced sensitivity and selectivity.

In this paper, the effects of annealing temperature on the performance of a ZnO thin film-based Metal-Semiconductor-Metal (MSM) type ultraviolet (UV) photodetector is reported. ZnO thin films were grown on a glass substrate using the Pulsed Filtered Cathodic Vacuum Arc Deposition (PFCVAD) technique at room temperature and after the deposition process the samples were annealed at 400, 450 and 550 °C in air condition to investigate the annealing effect on the structural, electrical, and optical properties of the photodetector. ZnO thin films which have grains in nanometer range has an increasing in the diameter of grains from 10.5 to 18.3 nm as a function of annealing temperature results in a red shift in the cut-off wavelength of the photodetector from 3.25 eV (381 nm) to 3.23 eV (383 nm). It is demonstrated that the sensitivity and the speed (rise/fall times) of the ZnO thin film based MSM photodetectors enhances with increasing post growth annealing temperature of ZnO thin film due to the increase in the absorption coefficient and the decrease of the total area of the grain boundaries due to the larger grain sizes formation in ZnO thin films with increasing thermal annealing temperature.

ZnO nanoparticles synthesized using the sol-gel technique with an average diameter of 11.5 nm are used to fabricate a vacuum pressure sensor in the range of 1 mbar to 10 ⁺³ mbar (low vacuum limit). A drastic increase in the current of the drop-casted ZnO on glass with 30 µ m separated Au contacts defined by e-beam lithography is observed. The sensor reveals a linear relationship in current versus pressure in a logarithmic plot. In the range of 1 mbar to 10 ⁺³ mbar, the sensor sensitivity is found be 110. Using the resistance-time plot of the vacuum pressure, the rise (response) and fall (recovery) times of the sensor are determined as 6.6 and 15.6 s, respectively. The power consumption of the sensor is 6.5 μ W. The operational parameters of the proposed sensor are found be much better than those of previously reported ZnO nanostructure-based sensors and, indeed, traditional ones. The sensing mechanism of the sensor is explained by the adsorption/desorption of OH ⁻ ions from the surface of the ZnO nanoparticles, leaving behind oxygen ions combined with oxygen vacancy states.