Eliminating Defect States in Monolayer Tungsten Diselenide by Coupling with a c-Plane Sapphire Surface

Chen Huang; Jinhuan Wang; Yilin Chen; Zuo Feng; Yuexing Xia; Guangjie Yao; Mengze Zhao; Guodong Xue; Si Zhou; Xiaozhi Xu; Xinfeng Liu; Enge Wang; Ji Chen; Kaihui Liu; Hao Hong

doi:10.1103/lswx-rxss

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Eliminating Defect States in Monolayer Tungsten Diselenide by Coupling with a c-Plane Sapphire Surface

Chen Huang ^1,*, Jinhuan Wang ^2,3,*,†, Yilin Chen ^1,*, Zuo Feng¹, Yuexing Xia^4,5, Guangjie Yao ¹, Mengze Zhao¹, Guodong Xue¹, Si Zhou^2,3 et al.

Xiaozhi Xu^2,3, Xinfeng Liu^4,5, Enge Wang^6,7, Ji Chen ^1,8,‡, Kaihui Liu ^1,8,9,§, and Hao Hong ^1,8,∥

¹State Key Lab for Mesoscopic Physics and Frontiers Science Center for Nano-optoelectronics, School of Physics, Peking University, Beijing, China
²Guangdong Basic Research Center of Excellence for Structure and Fundamental Interactions of Matter, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Quantum Engineering and Quantum Materials, School of Physics, South China Normal University, Guangzhou 510006, China
³Guangdong-Hong Kong Joint Laboratory of Quantum Matter, Frontier Research Institute for Physics, South China Normal University, Guangzhou 510006, China
⁴CAS Key Laboratory of Standardization and Measurement for Nanotechnology, National Center for Nanoscience and Technology, Beijing 100190, China
⁵University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
⁶International Centre for Quantum Materials, Collaborative Innovation Centre of Quantum Matter, Peking University, Beijing, China
⁷Tsientang Institute for Advanced Study, Zhejiang, China
⁸Interdisciplinary Institute of Light-Element Quantum Materials, Peking University, Beijing, China
⁹Songshan Lake Materials Lab, Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Dongguan, China

^*These authors contributed equally to this work.
^†Contact author: jinhuanwang@scnu.edu.cn
^‡Contact author: ji.chen@pku.edu.cn
^§Contact author: khliu@pku.edu.cn
^∥Contact author: haohong@pku.edu.cn

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Phys. Rev. Lett. 135, 126201 – Published 15 September, 2025

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/lswx-rxss

Abstract

Semiconducting transition metal dichalcogenides are promising platforms for exploring emergent two-dimensional (2D) exciton physics and constructing 2D optoelectronic devices. However, even in mechanically exfoliated and hexagonal boron nitride encapsulated samples that are expected to maintain the most intrinsic properties, shallow defect states are still unavoidable. Here, we reported a method for eliminating the defect states in monolayer ${WSe}_{2}$ by coupling it with a c-plane sapphire surface. We found that the defect-relevant photoluminescence peaks at cryogenic temperatures can be completely suppressed in ${WSe}_{2}$ on c-plane sapphire, resulting in intrinsic exciton radiation, prolonged lifetime, and increased diffusion length. Ab initio calculations revealed that the surface of c-plane sapphire is much more active than other planes, where oxygen atoms preferentially transfer to ${WSe}_{2}$ to repair selenium vacancy defects. Our Letter provides a new platform for defect engineering, which will promote the development of high-performance electronic and optoelectronic devices based on 2D materials.

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Eliminating Defect States in Monolayer Tungsten Diselenide by Coupling with a c-Plane Sapphire Surface

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Eliminating Defect States in Monolayer Tungsten Diselenide by Coupling with a c-Plane Sapphire Surface

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