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Excitons, which are Coulomb bound electron-hole pairs, are composite bosons and thus at low temperature can form a superfluid state with a single well-defined amplitude and phase. We directly image this macroscopic exciton superfluid state in an hBN-separated MoSe₂-WSe₂heterostructure. At high density, we identify quasi-long-range order over the entire active area of our sample, through spatially resolved coherence measurements. By varying the exciton density and sample temperature, we map out the phase diagram of the superfluid. We observe the superfluid phase persisting to a temperature of 15 K, which is in excellent agreement with theoretical predictions. This works paves the way to realizing on chip superfluid structures capable of studying fundamental physical behaviors and quantum devices that use superfluidity. 

Van der Waals layered and 2D materials constitute an extraordinary playground for condensed matter physics, since the strong confinement of wavefunctions to two dimensions supports a diverse set of correlated phenomena. By creating carefully designed heterostructures, these can be readily manipulated. In this Perspective, we advance the viewpoint that heterostructures from these materials with thin layers of organic molecules offer an opportunity for creating and manipulating the correlated degrees of freedom in unprecedented ways. We briefly survey what has been accomplished thus far, including proposed mechanisms, before concentrating on unique opportunities offered by the vast selection of available organic molecules. We further introduce the notion of “proximitization” in combination with symmetry breaking as a fertile and potentially unifying conceptual vantage point from which to consider opportunities for tailoring correlations in van der Waals layered materials. 

One-dimensional (1D) van der Waals materials have emerged as an intriguing playground to explore novel electronic and optical effects. We report on inorganic one-dimensional SbPS4 nanotube bundles obtained via mechanical exfoliation from bulk crystals. The ability to mechanically exfoliate SbPS4 nanobundles offers the possibility of applying modern 2D material fabrication techniques to create mixed-dimensional van der Waals heterostructures. We find that SbPS4 can readily be exfoliated to yield long (>10 μm) nanobundles with thicknesses that range from 1.3 to 200 nm. We investigated the optical response of semiconducting SbPS4 nanobundles and discovered that upon excitation with blue light, they emit bright and ultra-broadband red light with a quantum yield similar to that of hBN-encapsulated MoSe2. We discovered that the ultra-broadband red light emission is a result of a large ∼1 eV exciton binding energy and a ∼200 meV exciton self-trapping energy, unprecedented in previous material studies. Due to the bright and ultra-broadband light emission, we believe that this class of inorganic 1D van der Waals semiconductors has numerous potential applications, including on-chip tunable nanolasers, and applications that require ultraviolet to visible light conversion, such as lighting and sensing. Overall, our findings open avenues for harnessing the unique characteristics of these nanomaterials, advancing both fundamental research and practical optoelectronic applications.< 

Abstract Spectrally narrow optical resonances can be used to generate slow light, i.e., a large reduction in the group velocity. In a previous work, we developed hybrid 2D semiconductor plasmonic structures, which consist of propagating optical frequency surface-plasmon polaritons interacting with excitons in a semiconductor monolayer. Here, we use coupled exciton-surface plasmon polaritons (E-SPPs) in monolayer WSe 2 to demonstrate slow light with a 1300 fold decrease of the SPP group velocity. Specifically, we use a high resolution two-color laser technique where the nonlinear E-SPP response gives rise to ultra-narrow coherent population oscillation (CPO) resonances, resulting in a group velocity on order of 10 5  m/s. Our work paves the way toward on-chip actively switched delay lines and optical buffers that utilize 2D semiconductors as active elements.