Mode-center Placement of Monolayer WS$_{2}$ in a Photonic Polymer Waveguide

TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel polymer waveguide platform with mode-center placement of monolayer WS$_{2}$, enhancing light-matter interaction and enabling strain-tunable hybrid-photonic devices for integrated photonics.

Contribution

It presents a simple dry-transfer method for integrating 2D materials into polymer waveguides at the mode center, improving coupling efficiency and device versatility.

Findings

Enhanced waveguide-emitter coupling demonstrated

Effective integration of WS$_{2}$-hBN heterostructures

Potential for strain-tunable hybrid photonic devices

Abstract

Effective integration of 2D materials such as monolayer transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) into photonic waveguides and integrated circuits is being intensely pursued due to the materials' strong exciton-based optical response. Here, we present a platform where a WS$_{2}$-hBN 2D heterostructure is directly integrated into the photonic mode-center of a novel polymer ridge waveguide. FDTD simulations and collection of photoluminescence from the guided mode indicate that this system exhibits significantly improved waveguide-emitter coupling over a previous elastomer platform. This is facilitated by the platform's enhanced refractive-index contrast and a new method for mode-center integration of the coupled TMD. The integration is based on a simple dry-transfer process that is applicable to other 2D materials, and the platform's elastomeric nature is a natural fit to explore strain-tunable hybrid-photonic devices. The demonstrated ability of coupling photoluminescence to a polymer waveguide opens up new possibilities for hybrid-photonic systems in a variety of contexts.