Chiral Cavity Control of the Interlayer Exciton Energy Spectrum

TL;DR

This paper predicts that placing interlayer excitons in a chiral cavity can invert their energy spectrum, changing their ground state symmetry from s- to p-orbital, with implications for tunable photon emission.

Contribution

It introduces a novel approach to control interlayer exciton symmetry using chiral cavities, enabling potential applications in quantum photonics.

Findings

Interlayer exciton energy spectrum can be reordered in a chiral cavity.

Ground state can switch from s- to p-orbital symmetry.

Larger interlayer separations require stronger cavity couplings.

Abstract

Heterostructures of two-dimensional materials offer a versatile platform to study light-matter interactions of electron and hole gases. By separating electron and hole layers with an insulator long-lived electron-hole bound states known as interlayer excitons can form. We predict that by placing an interlayer exciton in a time-reversal-symmetry-breaking chiral cavity the energy spectrum of an interlayer exciton can be reordered. As a consequence of this reordering the ground state of the interlayer exciton can be driven from an s-orbital to a p-orbital, effectively changing the symmetry of the electron-hole pair. We present a phase diagram showing the couplings and separations required for a p-orbital excitonic ground state where we predict that larger interlayer separations require higher cavity couplings. We expect these results to be relevant for angular-momentum-tunable, single photon emission physics.