Photoacoustic spectroscopy of layered crystals: An enhancement of the photoacoustic signal and its analysis from the perspective of heat generation

Photoacoustic spectroscopy is a powerful tool for investigating semiconductors and determining some of their basic properties. However, generating a signal that is large enough for the investigated samples is still challenging. To address this, the focus is on enhancing photoacoustic (PA) signal intensity in a non-complex way, which does not require changing any part of an experimental setup. The PA signal intensity enhancement is mainly achieved by manipulating the sample volume and its surroundings. MoS₂, a layered material that belongs to the van der Waals crystals was selected due to ease of exfoliation to the proper thickness. A reduction in MoS₂ thickness from 112 to 7 µm, resulted in enhancement of the PA signal by a factor of ∼50. A simple model has been proposed to describe the results based on thermal processes. Additionally, a method to determine the energy gap in transition metal dichalcogenides from PA measurements is presented.