Giant exciton binding energy in bulk CrCl3

TL;DR

This study discovers that bulk CrCl3, a van der Waals crystal, exhibits an exceptionally high exciton binding energy of 1.64 eV, revealing new insights into excitonic phenomena in 3D vdW materials.

Contribution

It demonstrates that bulk CrCl3 has a record exciton binding energy due to electronic confinement and magnetic correlations, expanding understanding beyond 2D vdW materials.

Findings

CrCl3 has a record exciton binding energy of 1.64 eV.

Colossal binding energies observed in NbOCl2 and MoCl3.

Universal exciton binding energy dependence on bandgap established.

Abstract

Van der Waals (vdW) materials, with their unique combination of electronic, optical, and magnetic properties, are emerging as promising platforms for exploring excitonic phenomena. Thus far, the choice of materials with exceptional excitonic response has been limited to two-dimensional (2D) configurations of vdW materials. At the same time, large interlayer distance and the possibility to create a variety of heterostructures offers an opportunity to control the dielectric screening in van der Waals heterostructures and van der Waals 3D materials, thus engineering the excitonic properties. Here, we reveal that bulk vdW crystal CrCl3 answers this quest with a record exciton binding energy of 1.64 eV owing to a delicate interplay of quasi-2D electronic confinement and local magnetic correlations. We also suggest that the non-local magnetic correlations play an important role in the temperature dependence of photoluminescence intensity. Furthermore, we observe colossal binding energies in vdW crystals NbOCl2 (0.66 eV) and MoCl3 (0.35 eV) and formulate a universal exciton binding energy dependence on bandgap for 2D and 3D vdW materials. Hence, our findings establish a fundamental link between the layered structure of vdW materials and their excitonic properties.