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Second harmonic study of thermally oxidized mono- and few-layer 2H−MoS2

Katharina Burgholzer1,*,†, Henry Hübschmann2,3,4,*,‡, Gerhard Berth2,3,4, Adriana Bocchini2,3,4, Uwe Gerstmann2,4, Wolf Gero Schmidt2,4, Rajdeep Adhikari1,5, Klaus D. Jöns2,3,4, and Alberta Bonanni1

  • *These authors contributed equally to this work.
  • †Contact author: katharina.burgholzer@jku.at
  • ‡Contact author: henry.volker.huebschmann@uni-paderborn.de
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Phys. Rev. B 114, 125414 – Published 17 August, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/7n6z-9tsr

Abstract

A comprehensive study of second harmonic generation on thermally oxidized MoS2 flakes with the thickness ranging from monolayer up to seven layers is presented. Observing the fundamental nonlinear behavior for nontreated and oxidized MoS2 reveals that oxidation causes significant changes in the second harmonic response for all investigated structures. Excitation-power-dependent measurements to analyze the nonlinear behavior with respect to the oxidation time show progressive oxidation within the maximum oxidation time of 6 h under the considered oxidation conditions. Here, polarization-dependent measurements reveal the structural changes due to oxidation. Additionally, it is found that the oxidation depth is restricted to the topmost S layer and the oxidation behavior exhibits a layer dependency. These findings are supported by theoretical band structure calculations. The results demonstrate that the thermal oxidation progress of two-dimensional MoS2 can be monitored with nonresonant and noninvasive SH microscopy by following the distinct fingerprints of structural modification in the nonlinear response.

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Phys. Rev. B 114, 125414– Published 17 August, 2026
  • Received 9 March 2026
  • Revised 17 July 2026
  • Accepted 20 July 2026
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Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI.

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