Material-realistic modelling of quantum many-body effects in a monolayer TMDC nanolaser device

TL;DR

This paper develops a detailed microscopic model of a monolayer MoS2 nanolaser, revealing how many-body effects influence stimulated emission at room temperature through complex light-matter interactions.

Contribution

It introduces a material-realistic quantum theory combining Coulomb interactions and laser equations to analyze many-body effects in TMDC-based nanolasers.

Findings

Demonstrates stimulated emission in MoS2 monolayer at room temperature.

Identifies electron-hole plasma as the lasing mechanism.

Predicts lasing at carrier densities above 5×10^{13} cm^{-2}.

Abstract

The efficient light-matter interaction in combination with the small volume occupied by monolayer transition-metal dichalcogenides (TMDCs) makes this material class a notable option as gain layer in future opto-electronic devices. Many-body effects of excited carriers influence the emission dynamics due to the introduction of optical non-linearities following excitation, but the exact mechanisms remain unexamined from a theoretical point of view. In this paper, we present a material-realistic microscopic theory of a device based on an MoS2-monolayer, which demonstrates stimulated emission activity at room temperature. The modelling procedure combines Coulomb and light-matter interaction matrix elements with doublet-level Quantum Laser Equations (QLEs). These give access to the dynamics of the photon-assisted polarisation, populations, and photon number while allowing the solution of a multi-scale problem ranging from femto- to nanoseconds. The input-output curve, hole burning and spectral clamping obtained from this theory present strong indications of electron-hole-plasma-based lasing occurring at densities above $5 \cdot 10^{13}\,\text{cm}^{-2}$ in this device.