Photonic-crystal exciton-polaritons in monolayer semiconductors

• Published in: Nature communications Vol. 9; no. 1; pp. 713 - 8
• Main Authors: Zhang, Long, Gogna, Rahul, Burg, Will, Tutuc, Emanuel, Deng, Hui
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 19.02.2018; Nature Publishing Group; Nature Portfolio
• Subjects: 132/122; 140/125; 142/126; 147/135; 639/301/357/1018; 639/624/399/1022; 639/766/400/2797; Coupling; Crystals; Decay; Dispersions; Electronics industry; Excitons; High temperature; Humanities and Social Sciences; multidisciplinary; Photonic crystals; Physics; Polaritons; Reflectance; Science; Science (multidisciplinary); Temperature effects
• ISSN: 2041-1723; 2041-1723
• DOI: 10.1038/s41467-018-03188-x

Semiconductor microcavity polaritons, formed via strong exciton-photon coupling, provide a quantum many-body system on a chip, featuring rich physics phenomena for better photonic technology. However, conventional polariton cavities are bulky, difficult to integrate, and inflexible for mode control, especially for room-temperature materials. Here we demonstrate sub-wavelength-thick, one-dimensional photonic crystals as a designable, compact, and practical platform for strong coupling with atomically thin van der Waals crystals. Polariton dispersions and mode anti-crossings are measured up to room temperature. Non-radiative decay to dark excitons is suppressed due to polariton enhancement of the radiative decay. Unusual features, including highly anisotropic dispersions and adjustable Fano resonances in reflectance, may facilitate high temperature polariton condensation in variable dimensions. Combining slab photonic crystals and van der Waals crystals in the strong coupling regime allows unprecedented engineering flexibility for exploring novel polariton phenomena and device concepts. Semiconductor microcavities can host polaritons formed by strong exciton-photon coupling, yet they may be plagued by scalability issues. Here, the authors demonstrate a sub-wavelength-thick, one-dimensional photonic crystal platform for strong coupling with atomically thin van der Waals crystals.