Optical Voltage Profiling of 2D Semiconductors via Proximal Exciton Sensing

Abstract

High contact resistances in atomically thin semiconductors often mask intrinsic electrical transport properties, particularly at low carrier densities where exotic correlated states emerge. We introduce optical voltage profiling, a noninvasive wide-field technique that replaces local voltage probes with a proximal monolayer MoSe$_2$ exciton sensor. Isolated by thin hexagonal boron nitride, this sensor converts the target's local electrostatic potential into spatially resolved modulations of exciton reflectance. Through pixel-wise in situ calibration, these signals yield quantitative two-dimensional voltage maps of an actively biased semiconductor device. Using this method, we demonstrate the carrier-density-driven metal-insulator transition in bilayer MoSe$_2$ and obtain channel resistances below 1 k$Ω$ despite M$Ω$-scale two-terminal resistances in the metallic region. The optically derived resistance exhibits a metal-insulator crossover near the resistance quantum $h/e^2$, and the voltage maps and reconstructed local conductivity reveal pronounced spatial heterogeneity in both insulating and metallic regimes. Beyond resolving channel resistance under high contact-resistance conditions, the technique provides spatially resolved access to microscopic transport heterogeneity in functional van der Waals devices.