Hybrid Exciton-Plasmon-Polaritons in van der Waals Semiconductor Gratings

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates how nanostructured transition metal dichalcogenides can be used to excite and control hybrid exciton-plasmon-polaritons with strong interactions, enabling advanced optoelectronic nano-devices.

Contribution

It introduces a method to pattern TMDCs into nanoresonators for precise control of hybrid polaritons and reveals suppression of exciton absorption due to hybrid photon states.

Findings

Strong dispersion and avoided crossing of excitons and polaritons with interaction potentials over 410 meV.

Complete suppression of TMDC exciton absorption resonances due to hybrid photon states.

Potential for next-generation integrated exciton optoelectronic devices.

Abstract

Van der Waals materials and heterostructures manifesting strongly bound room temperature exciton states exhibit emergent physical phenomena and are of a great promise for optoelectronic applications. Here, we demonstrate that nanostructured multilayer transition metal dichalcogenides by themselves provide an ideal platform for excitation and control of excitonic modes, paving the way to exciton-photonics. Hence, we show that by patterning the TMDCs into nanoresonators, strong dispersion and avoided crossing of excitons and hybrid polaritons with interaction potentials exceeding 410 meV may be controlled with great precision. We further observe that inherently strong TMDC exciton absorption resonances may be completely suppressed due to excitation of hybrid photon states and their interference. Our work paves the way to a next generation of integrated exciton optoelectronic nano-devices and applications in light generation, computing, and sensing.