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Preprints
222. S. Shradha, R. Rosati, H. Lamsaadi, J. Picker, I. Paradisanos, Md T. Hossain, L. Krelle, L. F. Oswald, N. Engel, D. I. Markina, K. Watanabe, T. Taniguchi, P. K. Sahoo, L. Lombez, X. Marie, P. Renucci, V. Paillard, J.-M. Poumirol, A. Turchanin, E. Malic, B. Urbaszek, "2D Excitonics with Atomically Thin Lateral Heterostructures", arXiv: 2510.21422
Semiconducting transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs), such as MoSe2 and WSe2, exhibit unique optical and electronic properties. Vertical stacking of layers of one or more TMDs, to create heterostructures, has expanded the fields of moiré physics and twistronics. Bottom-up fabrication techniques, such as chemical vapor deposition, have advanced the creation of heterostructures beyond what was possible with mechanical exfoliation and stacking. These techniques now enable the fabrication of lateral heterostructures, where two or more monolayers are covalently bonded in the plane of their atoms. At their atomically sharp interfaces, lateral heterostructures exhibit additional phenomena, such as the formation of charge-transfer excitons, in which the electron and hole reside on opposite sides of the interface. Due to the energy landscape created by differences in the band structures of the constituent materials, unique effects such as unidirectional exciton transport and excitonic lensing can be observed in lateral heterostructures. This review outlines recent progress in exciton dynamics and spectroscopy of TMD-based lateral heterostructures and offers an outlook on future developments in excitonics in this promising system.
arXiv: 2510.21422221. P. Werner, W. Bennecke, J. P. Bange, G. Meneghini, D. Schmitt, M. Merboldt, A. M. Seiler, A. AlMutairi, K. Watanabe, T. Taniguchi, G. S. Matthijs Jansen, J. Liu, D. Steil, S. Hofmann, R. Thomas Weitz, E. Malic, S. Mathias, M. Reutzel "The role of non-equilibrium populations in dark exciton formation", arXiv: 2505.06074
In two-dimensional transition metal dichalcogenide structures, the optical excitation of a bright exciton may be followed by the formation of a plethora of lower energy dark states. In these formation and relaxation processes between different exciton species, non-equilibrium exciton and phonon populations play a dominant role, but remain so far largely unexplored as most states are inaccessible by regular spectroscopies. Here, on the example of homobilayer 2H-MoS, we realize direct access to the full exciton relaxation cascade from experiment and theory. By measuring the energy- and in-plane momentum-resolved photoemission spectral function, we reveal a distinct fingerprint for dark excitons in a non-equilibrium excitonic occupation distribution. In excellent agreement with microscopic many-particle calculations, we quantify the timescales for the formation of a non-equilibrium dark excitonic occupation and its subsequent thermalization to 85~fs and 150~fs, respectively. Our results provide a previously inaccessible view of the complete exciton relaxation cascade, which is of paramount importance for the future characterization of non-equilibrium excitonic phases and the efficient design of optoelectronic devices based on two-dimensional materials.
arXiv: 2505.06074220. B. Kundu, P. Chakrabarty, A. Dhara, R. Rosati, C. Samanta, S. K. Chakraborty, S. Sahoo, S. Dhara, Saroj P. Dash, E. Malic, S. Lodha, P. K. Sahoo "Trion-Engineered Multimodal Transistors in Two-dimensional Bilayer Semiconductor Lateral Heterostructures", arXiv: 2411.01257
Multimodal device operations are essential to advancing the integration of 2D semiconductors in electronics, photonics, information and quantum technology. Precise control over carrier dynamics, particularly exciton generation and transport, is crucial for finetuning the functionality of optoelectronic devices based on 2D semiconductor heterostructure. However, the traditional exciton engineering methods in 2D semiconductors are mainly restricted to the artificially assembled vertical pn heterostructures with electrical or strain induced confinements. In this study, we utilized bilayer 2D lateral npn multijunction heterostructures with intrinsically spatially separated energy landscapes to achieve preferential exciton generation and manipulation without external confinement. In lateral npn FET geometry, we uncover unique and nontrivial properties, including dynamic tuning of channel photoresponsivity from positive to negative. The multimodal operation of these 2D FETs is achieved by carefully adjusting electrical bias and the impinging photon energy, enabling precise control over the trions generation and transport. Cryogenic photoluminescence measurement revealed the presence of trions in bilayer MoSe2 and intrinsic trap states in WSe2. Measurements in different FET device geometries show the multifunctionality of 2D lateral heterostructure phototransistors for efficient tuning and electrical manipulation of excitonic characteristics. Our findings pave the way for developing practical exciton-based transistors, sensors, multimodal optoelectronic and quantum technologies.
arXiv: 2411.01257