Multimodal Nonlinear Optical Imaging of MoS₂ and MoS₂-Based van der Waals Heterostructures

van der Waals layered structures, notably the transitional metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) and TMD-based heterostructures, have recently attracted immense interest due to their unique physical properties and potential applications in electronics, optoelectronics, and energy harvesting. Despite the recent progress, it is still a challenge to perform comprehensive characterizations of critical properties of these layered structures, including crystal structures, chemical dynamics, and interlayer coupling, using a single characterization platform. In this study, we successfully developed a multimodal nonlinear optical imaging method to characterize these critical properties of molybdenum disulfide (MoS₂) and MoS₂-based heterostructures. Our results demonstrate that MoS₂ layers exhibit strong four-wave mixing (FWM), sum-frequency generation (SFG), and second-harmonic generation (SHG) nonlinear optical characteristics. We believe this is the first observation of FWM and SFG from TMD layers. All three kinds of optical nonlinearities are sensitive to layer numbers, crystal orientation, and interlayer coupling. The combined and simultaneous SHG/SFG-FWM imaging not only is capable of rapid evaluation of crystal quality and precise determination of odd-even layers but also provides in situ monitoring of the chemical dynamics of thermal oxidation in MoS₂ and interlayer coupling in MoS₂-graphene heterostructures. This method has the advantages of versatility, high fidelity, easy operation, and fast imaging, enabling comprehensive characterization of van der Waals layered structures for fundamental research and practical applications.