Enhancement of the Monolayer Tungsten Disulfide Exciton Photoluminescence with a Two-Dimensional Material/Air/Gallium Phosphide In-Plane Microcavity

Light–matter interactions with two-dimensional materials gained significant attention in recent years, leading to the reporting of weak and strong coupling regimes and effective nanolaser operation with various structures. Particularly, future applications involving monolayer materials in waveguide-coupled on-chip-integrated circuitry and valleytronic nanophotonics require controlling, directing, and optimizing photoluminescence. In this context, photoluminescence enhancement from monolayer transition-metal dichalcogenides on patterned semiconducting substrates becomes attractive. It is demonstrated in our work using focused-ion-beam-etched GaP and monolayer WS2 suspended on hexagonal boron nitride buffer sheets. We present an optical microcavity approach capable of efficient in-plane and out-of-plane confinement of light, which results in a WS2 photoluminescence enhancement by a factor of 10 compared to that of the unstructured substrate at room temperature. The key concept is the combination of interference effects in both the horizontal direction using a bull’s-eye-shaped circular Bragg grating and in the vertical direction by means of a multiple-reflection model with optimized etch depth of circular air–GaP structures for maximum constructive interference effects of the applied pump and expected emission light.