Employing high-yield production of layered materials by liquid-phase exfoliation, molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) dispersions with large populations of single and few layers were prepared. Electron microscopy verified the high quality of the two-dimensional MoS2 nanostructures. Atomic force microscopy analysis revealed that ~39% of the MoS2 flakes had thicknesses of less than 5 nm. Linewidth and frequency difference of the E(1)2g and A1g Raman modes confirmed the effective reduction of flake thicknesses from the bulk MoS2 to the dispersions. Ultrafast nonlinear optical (NLO) properties were investigated using an open-aperture Z-scan technique. All experiments were performed using 100 fs pulses at 800 nm from a mode-locked Ti:sapphire laser. The MoS2 nanosheets exhibited significant saturable absorption (SA) for the femtosecond pulses, resulting in the third-order NLO susceptibility Imχ((3)) ~ 10(-15) esu, figure of merit ~10(-15) esu cm, and free-carrier absorption cross section ~10(-17) cm(2). Induced free carrier density and the relaxation time were estimated to be ~10(16) cm(-3) and ~30 fs, respectively. At the same excitation condition, the MoS2 dispersions show better SA response than the graphene dispersions.

We report large-scale synthesis of silica nanowires (SiONWs) using an excimer laser ablation method. Silica was produced in the form of amorphous nanowires at a diameter of ∼15 nm and a length up to hundreds micrometers. The SiONWs emit stable and high brightness blue light at energies of 2.65 and 3.0 eV. The intensity of the emission is two orders of magnitude higher than that of porous silicon. The SiONWs may have potential applications in high-resolution optical heads of scanning near-field optical microscope or nanointerconnections in future integrated optical devices.

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Well-aligned arrays of ZnO nanoneedles were fabricated using a simple vapor phase growth. The diameters of the nanoneedle tips are as small as several nanometers, which is highly in favor of the field emission. Field-emission measurements using the nanoneedle arrays as cathode showed emission current density as high as 2.4 mA/cm2 under the field of 7 V/μm, and a very low turn-on field of 2.4 V/μm. Such a high emission current density is attributed to the high aspect ratio of the nanoneedles. The high emission current density, high stability, and low turn-on field make the ZnO nanoneedle arrays one of the promising candidates for field-emission displays.

We report subnanometer modification enabled by an ultrafine helium ion beam. By adjusting ion dose and the beam profile, structural defects were controllably introduced in a few-layer molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) sample and its stoichiometry was modified by preferential sputtering of sulfur at a few-nanometer scale. Localized tuning of the resistivity of MoS2 was demonstrated and semiconducting, metallic-like, or insulating material was obtained by irradiation with different doses of He(+). Amorphous MoSx with metallic behavior has been demonstrated for the first time. Fabrication of MoS2 nanostructures with 7 nm dimensions and pristine crystal structure was also achieved. The damage at the edges of these nanostructures was typically confined to within 1 nm. Nanoribbons with widths as small as 1 nm were reproducibly fabricated. This nanoscale modification technique is a generalized approach that can be applied to various two-dimensional (2D) materials to produce a new range of 2D metamaterials.