Tunable Electronic Energy Level Alignment and Exciton Diversity in Organic–Inorganic van der Waals Heterostructures

van der Waals stacking of two-dimensional (2D) materials offers a powerful platform for engineering material interfaces with tailored electronic and optical properties. While most van der Waals multilayers have featured inorganic monolayers, incorporating molecular monolayers introduces additional degrees of tunability and functionality. Here, we investigate hybrid bilayers composed of atomically thin perylene-based molecular crystals interfaced with monolayer transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs), specifically MoS<sub>2</sub> and WS<sub>2</sub>. Using the <i>ab initio</i> many-body perturbation theory within the GW approximation and the Bethe-Salpeter equation approach, we predict emergent properties beyond those of the isolated constituent systems. Notably, we find substantial renormalization of monolayer molecular crystal band gap due to TMD-induced polarization. Furthermore, by varying the TMD monolayer, we demonstrate tuning of the energy level alignment of the bilayer and subsequent control over a diversity of lowest-energy excitons, which include strongly bound hybrid excitons and long-lived charge-transfer excitons. These findings establish organic-inorganic van der Waals heterostructures as a promising class of materials for tunable optoelectronic devices and quantum excitonic phenomena, expanding the design space for low-dimensional systems.

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Publication Details

Journal
ACS Nano
Published
2026-02-19
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1021/acsnano.5c11656
Citations
1
Primary Topic
2D Materials and Applications
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
16.08
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article

Tunable Electronic Energy Level Alignment and Exciton Diversity in Organic–Inorganic van der Waals Heterostructures

Jeffrey B. Neaton, Jonah B. Haber, Olugbenga Adeniran, Aurélie Champagne et al.
1 citations
ACS Nano
2D Materials and Applications
16.08
article

Tunable Electronic Energy Level Alignment and Exciton Diversity in Organic–Inorganic van der Waals Heterostructures

Jeffrey B. Neaton, Jonah B. Haber, Olugbenga Adeniran, Aurélie Champagne, Antonios M. Alvertis, Zhen–Fei Liu
article en
1 citations

Abstract

van der Waals stacking of two-dimensional (2D) materials offers a powerful platform for engineering material interfaces with tailored electronic and optical properties. While most van der Waals multilayers have featured inorganic monolayers, incorporating molecular monolayers introduces additional degrees of tunability and functionality. Here, we investigate hybrid bilayers composed of atomically thin perylene-based molecular crystals interfaced with monolayer transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs), specifically MoS<sub>2</sub> and WS<sub>2</sub>. Using the <i>ab initio</i> many-body perturbation theory within the GW approximation and the Bethe-Salpeter equation approach, we predict emergent properties beyond those of the isolated constituent systems. Notably, we find substantial renormalization of monolayer molecular crystal band gap due to TMD-induced polarization. Furthermore, by varying the TMD monolayer, we demonstrate tuning of the energy level alignment of the bilayer and subsequent control over a diversity of lowest-energy excitons, which include strongly bound hybrid excitons and long-lived charge-transfer excitons. These findings establish organic-inorganic van der Waals heterostructures as a promising class of materials for tunable optoelectronic devices and quantum excitonic phenomena, expanding the design space for low-dimensional systems.

ACS NanoVol. 20(8)
Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (FR), Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (US), Université de Bordeaux (FR), Wayne State University (US), University of California System (US), Yukhnovskii Institute for Condensed Matter Physics of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine (UA), Kavli Energy NanoScience Institute (US), Institut Polytechnique de Bordeaux (FR), Advanced Engineering (Czechia) (CZ), The University of Texas at Austin (US), UCLouvain (BE), Stanford University (US)
Openalex Percentile: Top 5%
2D Materials and Applications
16.08
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