Refractive Index Modulation in Monolayer Molybdenum Diselenide

• Published in: Nano letters Vol. 21; no. 18; pp. 7602 - 7608
• Main Authors: Li, Melissa, Biswas, Souvik, Hail, Claudio U, Atwater, Harry A
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States American Chemical Society 22.09.2021
• Subjects: Chemistry; Materials Science; Physics; Science & Technology - Other Topics; optical modulator; transition metal dichalcogenides; photonics; monolayer semiconductor; 2D materials; tunable optical properties
• ISSN: 1530-6984; 1530-6992
• DOI: 10.1021/acs.nanolett.1c02199

Two-dimensional transition metal dichalcogenides are promising candidates for ultrathin light modulators due to their highly tunable excitonic resonances at visible and near-infrared wavelengths. At cryogenic temperatures, large excitonic reflectivity in monolayer molybdenum diselenide (MoSe2) has been shown, but the permittivity and index modulation have not been studied. Here, we demonstrate large gate-tunability of complex refractive index in monolayer MoSe2 by Fermi level modulation and study the doping dependence of the A and B excitonic resonances for temperatures between 4 and 150 K. By tuning the charge density, we observe both temperature- and carrier-dependent epsilon-near-zero response in the permittivity and transition from metallic to dielectric near the A exciton energy. We attribute the dynamic control of the refractive index to the interplay between radiative and non-radiative decay channels that are tuned upon gating. Our results suggest the potential of monolayer MoSe2 as an active material for emerging photonics applications.