Evidence for moiré excitons in van der Waals heterostructures
- Univ. of Texas, Austin, TX (United States). Dept. of Physics and Center for Complex Quantum Systems
- National Inst. of Standards and Technology (NIST), Boulder, CO (United States)
- Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States). Materials Science Division
- Washington Univ., St. Louis, MO (United States). Dept. of Physics
- Univ. of Texas, Austin, TX (United States). Microelectronics Research Center, Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering
- Univ. of Texas, Austin, TX (United States). Dept. of Aerospace Engineering and Engineering Mechanics
- National Inst. of Material Science, Ibaraki (Japan)
- Univ. of Texas, Austin, TX (United States). Dept. of Aerospace Engineering and Engineering Mechanics, and Texas Materials Inst.
- Hanyang Univ., Ansan (Korea). Dept. of Photonics and Nanoelectronics and Dept. of Applied Physics
Recent advances in the isolation and stacking of monolayers of van der Waals materials have provided approaches for the preparation of quantum materials in the ultimate two-dimensional limit(1,2). In van der Waals heterostructures formed by stacking two monolayer semiconductors, lattice mismatch or rotational misalignment introduces an in-plane moire superlattice(3). It is widely recognized that the moire superlattice can modulate the electronic band structure of the material and lead to transport properties such as unconventional superconductivity(4) and insulating behaviour driven by correlations(5-7); however, the influence of the moire superlattice on optical properties has not been investigated experimentally. Here we report the observation of multiple interlayer exciton resonances with either positive or negative circularly polarized emission in a molybdenum diselenide/tungsten diselenide (MoSe2/WSe2) heterobilayer with a small twist angle. We attribute these resonances to excitonic ground and excited states confined within the moire potential. This interpretation is supported by recombination dynamics and by the dependence of these interlayer exciton resonances on twist angle and temperature. These results suggest the feasibility of engineering artificial excitonic crystals using van der Waals heterostructures for nanophotonics and quantum information applications.
- Research Organization:
- Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES) (SC-22). Materials Sciences & Engineering Division; National Science Foundation (NSF); Welch Foundation; China Scholarship Council; Army Research Office; Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) - Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR); National Research Foundation (NRF) of Korea; Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) - KAKENHI
- Grant/Contract Number:
- AC02-06CH11357
- OSTI ID:
- 1503250
- Journal Information:
- Nature (London), Journal Name: Nature (London) Journal Issue: 7746 Vol. 567; ISSN 0028-0836
- Publisher:
- Nature Publishing GroupCopyright Statement
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English