Giant enhancement of exciton diffusion near an electronic Mott insulator

TL;DR

This study reveals a giant enhancement of exciton diffusion near a Mott insulator phase in a WSe2/WS2 heterobilayer, highlighting the influence of correlated electronic states on exciton mobility in hybrid systems.

Contribution

It uncovers a new mechanism where charge order near a Mott insulator significantly boosts exciton diffusion in semiconductor heterostructures.

Findings

Exciton diffusion increases by three orders of magnitude near the Mott insulator.

Charge doping suppresses moiré potential, facilitating exciton mobility.

The results link exciton diffusion to correlated electron states in heterostructures.

Abstract

Bose-Fermi mixtures naturally appear in various physical systems. In semiconductor heterostructures, such mixtures can be realized, with bosons as excitons and fermions as dopant charges. However, the complexity of these hybrid systems challenges the comprehension of the mechanisms that determine physical properties such as mobility. In this study, we investigate interlayer exciton diffusion in an H-stacked WSe$_2$/WS$_2$ heterobilayer. Our measurements are performed in the ultra-low exciton density regime at low temperatures to examine how the presence of charges affects exciton mobility. Remarkably, for charge doping near the Mott insulator phase, we observe a giant enhancement of exciton diffusion of three orders of magnitude compared to charge neutrality. We attribute this observation to mobile valence holes, which experience a suppressed moir\'e potential due to the electronic charge order in the conduction band, and recombine with any conduction electron in a non-monogamous manner. This new mechanism emerges for sufficiently large fillings in the vicinity of correlated generalized Wigner crystal and Mott insulating states. Our results demonstrate the potential to characterize correlated electron states through exciton diffusion and provide insights into the rich interplay of bosons and fermions in semiconductor heterostructures.