Creating and Probing Localized Excitons in 2D Semiconductors

Localization of excitons in 2D semiconductors strongly modifies their properties. In addition to significantly reducing their intrinsic radiative decay rates, through localization we gain access to individual quantum systems, which are more fully analogous to atoms. This permits control of the exciton center of mass motion and access to strong nonlinearities and quantum emission for sufficiently tight confinement. In this paper, we describe recent progress towards creating localized excitons and excitons arrays with both site and spectral control. Two methods will be discussed: exciton localization through strain control on a fine spatial scale [1] and localization through electric-field control in monolayers [2] and heterostructures.

[1] L. Yu, M. Deng, J. L. Zhang, S. Borghardt, B. Kardynal, J. Vuckovic, T. F. Heinz, “Site-controlled quantum emitters in MoSe2,” Nano Lett. 6, 2376–2381 (2021).
[2] J. Hu, E. Lorchat, X. Chen, K. Watanabe, T. Taniguchi, T. F. Heinz, P. A. Murthy, T. Chervy, “Quantum control of exciton wavefunctions in 2D semiconductors,” Science Adv. 10, eadk6369 (2024).