Folded MoS2 layers with reduced interlayer coupling

We study molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) structures generated by folding single-layer and bilayer MoS2 flakes. We find that this modified layer stacking leads to a decrease in the interlayer coupling and an enhancement of the photoluminescence emission yield. We additionally find that folded single-layer MoS2 structures show a contribution to photoluminescence spectra of both neutral and charged excitons, which is a characteristic feature of single-layer MoS2 that has not been observed in multilayer MoS2. The results presented here open the door to fabrication of multilayered MoS2 samples with high optical absorption while maintaining the advantageous enhanced photoluminescence emission of single-layer MoS2 by controllably twisting the MoS2 layers.