Thermally induced band hybridization in bilayer-bilayer MoS₂/WS₂heterostructure

Transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs), being valley selectively, are an ideal system hosting excitons. Stacking TMDs together to form heterostructure offers an exciting platform to engineer new optical and electronic properties in solid-state systems. However, due to the limited accuracy and repetitiveness of sample preparation, the effects of interlayer coupling on the electronic and excitonic properties have not been systematically investigated. In this report, we study the photoluminescence spectra of bilayer-bilayer MoS2/WS2 heterostructure with a type II band alignment. We demonstrate that thermal annealing can increase interlayer coupling in the van der Waals heterostructures, and after thermally induced band hybridization such heterostructure behaves more like an artificial new solid, rather than just the combination of two individual TMD components. We also carry out experimental and theoretical studies of the electric controllable direct and indirect infrared interlayer excitons in such system. Our study reveals the impact of interlayer coupling on interlayer excitons and will shed light on the understanding and engineering of layer-controlled spin-valley configuration in twisted van der Waals heterostructures.