Vacuum ultraviolet excitation luminescence spectroscopy of few-layered MoS2

We report on vacuum ultraviolet (VUV) excited photoluminescence (PL) spectra emitted from a chemical vapor deposited MoS2 few-layered film. The excitation spectrum was recorded by monitoring intensities of PL spectra at similar to 1.9 eV. A strong wide excitation band peaking at 7 eV was found in the excitation. The PL excitation band is most intensive at liquid helium temperature and completely quenched at 100 K. Through first-principles calculations of photoabsorption in MoS2, the excitation was explicated and attributed to transitions of electrons from p- and d- type states in the valence band to the d- and p-type states in the conduction band. The obtained photon-in/photon-out results clarify the excitation and emission behavior of the low dimensional MoS2 when interacting with the VUV light sources.