Biexcitons do not form in MoS2 monolayers from optical pumping at 6 K

Transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) have attracted much interest in recent years due to their emerging material properties. In monolayer TMDs, such as MoS2, extreme quantum confinement is achieved in the monolayer limit. Although monolayer TMDs represent an ideal platform to explore excitonic physics using ultrafast spectroscopy, this exploration is currently limited by confusion regarding the origin of certain spectral features, including the below-bandgap PIA feature observed in pump-probe experiments. In this work, we document an absence of PIA features immediately after photoexcitation, indicating a lack of strong optically-induced biexciton formation. Below-bandgap PIA features are observed to grow in with a time constant of 110 ± 10 fs, indicative of other factors responsible for their origin. These results indicate that optically-induced biexciton formation is most likely not responsible for the previously observed PIA features in MoS2 monolayers.