journal article·2023-12Open access

Quadrupolar–dipolar excitonic transition in a tunnel-coupled van der Waals heterotrilayer

Weijie Li, Zach Hadjri, Luka M. Devenica, Jin Zhang, Song Liu, James Hone, Kenji Watanabe, Takashi Taniguchi, Angel Rubio, Ajit Srivastava

Nature Materials· Volume 22· Issue 12

Abstract

Strongly bound excitons determine light-matter interactions in van der Waals heterostructures of two-dimensional semiconductors. Unlike fundamental particles, quasiparticles in condensed matter, such as excitons, can be tailored to alter their interactions and realize emergent quantum phases. Here, using a WS2/WSe2/WS2 heterotrilayer, we create a quantum superposition of oppositely oriented dipolar excitons-a quadrupolar exciton-wherein an electron is layer-hybridized in WS2 layers while the hole localizes in WSe2. In contrast to dipolar excitons, symmetric quadrupolar excitons only redshift in an out-of-plane electric field. At higher densities and a finite electric field, the nonlinear Stark shift of quadrupolar excitons becomes linear, signalling a transition to dipolar excitons resulting from exciton-exciton interactions, while at a vanishing electric field, the reduced exchange interaction suggests antiferroelectric correlations between dipolar excitons. Our results present van der Waals heterotrilayers as a field-tunable platform to engineer light-matter interactions and explore quantum phase transitions between spontaneously ordered many-exciton phases.
Source: europepmc · Quality: candidate unverified · Source record ↗

Research context

OpenAlex topics: 2D Materials and Applications · Perovskite Materials and Applications · Strong Light-Matter Interactions

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