Excitons are elementary optical excitation in semiconductors. The ability to manipulate and transport these quasiparticles would enable excitonic circuits and devices for quantum photonic technologies. Recently, interlayer excitons in 2D semiconductors have emerged as a promising candidate for engineering excitonic devices due to their long lifetime, large exciton binding energy, and gate tunability. However, the charge-neutral nature of the excitons leads to weak response to the in-plane electric field and thus inhibits transport beyond the diffusion length. Here, we demonstrate the directional transport of interlayer excitons in bilayer WSe2driven by the propagating potential traps induced by surface acoustic waves (SAW). We show that at 100 K, the SAW-driven excitonic transport is activated above a threshold acoustic power and reaches 20 μm, a distance at least ten times longer than the diffusion length and only limited by the device size. Temperature-dependent measurement reveals the transition from the diffusion-limited regime at low temperature to the acoustic field-driven regime at elevated temperature. Our work shows that acoustic waves are an effective, contact-free means to control exciton dynamics and transport, promising for realizing 2D materials-based excitonic devices such as exciton transistors, switches, and transducers up to room temperature.
Engineering photonic environments for two-dimensional materials
Abstract A fascinating photonic platform with a small device scale, fast operating speed, as well as low energy consumption is two-dimensional (2D) materials, thanks to their in-plane crystalline structures and out-of-plane quantum confinement. The key to further advancement in this research field is the ability to modify the optical properties of the 2D materials. The modifications typically come from the materials themselves, for example, altering their chemical compositions. This article reviews a comparably less explored but promising means, through engineering the photonic surroundings. Rather than modifying materials themselves, this means manipulates the dielectric and metallic environments, both uniform and nanostructured, that directly interact with the materials. For 2D materials that are only one or a few atoms thick, the interaction with the environment can be remarkably efficient. This review summarizes the three degrees of freedom of this interaction: weak coupling, strong coupling, and multifunctionality. In addition, it reviews a relatively timing concept of engineering that directly applied to the 2D materials by patterning. Benefiting from the burgeoning development of nanophotonics, the engineering of photonic environments provides a versatile and creative methodology of reshaping light–matter interaction in 2D materials.
- Award ID(s):
- 2003325
- Publication Date:
- NSF-PAR ID:
- 10248420
- Journal Name:
- Nanophotonics
- Volume:
- 10
- Issue:
- 3
- Page Range or eLocation-ID:
- 1031 to 1058
- ISSN:
- 2192-8606
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
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Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Publisher's Version of Record
- https://doi.org/10.1515/nanoph-2020-0524
