Acoustically Driven Stark Effect in Transition Metal Dichalcogenide Monolayers

The Stark effect is one of the most efficient mechanisms to manipulate many-body states in nanostructured systems. In mono- and few-layer transition metal dichalcogenides, it has been successfully induced by optical and electric field means. Here, we tune the optical emission energies and dissociate excitonic states in MoSe₂ monolayers employing the 220 MHz in-plane piezoelectric field carried by surface acoustic waves. We transfer the monolayers to high dielectric constant piezoelectric substrates, where the neutral exciton binding energy is reduced, allowing us to efficiently quench (above 90%) and red-shift the excitonic optical emissions. A model for the acoustically induced Stark effect yields neutral exciton and trion in-plane polarizabilities of 530 and 630 × 10^-5 meV/(kV/cm)², respectively, which are considerably larger than those reported for monolayers encapsulated in hexagonal boron nitride. Large in-plane polarizabilities are an attractive ingredient to manipulate and modulate multiexciton interactions in two-dimensional semiconductor nanostructures for optoelectronic applications.

Piezoelectric Modulation of Excitonic Properties in Monolayer WSe2 under Strong Dielectric Screening

We investigate the interaction of excitons in monolayer WSe₂ with the piezoelectric field of surface acoustic wave (SAW) at room temperature using photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy and report a large in-plane exciton polarizability of 8.43 ± 0.18 × 10^-6 Dm/V. Such large polarizability arises due to the strong dielectric screening from the piezoelectric substrate. In addition, we show that the exciton-piezoelectric field interaction and population distribution between neutral excitons and trions can be optically manipulated by controlling the field screening using photogenerated free carriers. Finally, we model the broadening of the exciton PL line width and report that the interaction is dominated by type-II band edge modulation, because of the in-plane electric field in the system. The results help understand the interaction of excitons in monolayer transition-metal dichalcogenides that will aid in controlled manipulation of excitonic properties for applications in sensing, detection, and on-chip communication.

Quantum-Confined Stark Effect in a MoS2 Monolayer van der Waals Heterostructure

The optics of dangling-bond-free van der Waals heterostructures containing transition metal dichalcogenides are dominated by excitons. A crucial property of a confined exciton is the quantum confined Stark effect (QCSE). Here, such a heterostructure is used to probe the QCSE by applying a uniform vertical electric field across a molybdenum disulfide (MoS₂) monolayer. The photoluminescence emission energies of the neutral and charged excitons shift quadratically with the applied electric field, provided that the electron density remains constant, demonstrating that the exciton can be polarized. Stark shifts corresponding to about half the homogeneous linewidth were achieved. Neutral and charged exciton polarizabilities of (7.8 ± 1.0) × 10^-10 and (6.4 ± 0.9) × 10^-10 D m V^-1 at relatively low electron density (∼10¹² cm^-2) have been extracted, respectively. These values are one order of magnitude lower than the previously reported values but in line with theoretical calculations. The methodology presented here is versatile and can be applied to other semiconducting layered materials.

Stark Effect Spectroscopy of Mono- and Few-Layer MoS2

We demonstrate electrical control of the A-exciton interband transition in mono- and few-layer MoS2 crystals embedded into photocapacitor devices via the DC Stark effect. Electric field-dependent low-temperature photoluminescence spectroscopy reveals a significant tuneability of the A-exciton transition energy up to ∼ 16 meV from which we extract the mean DC exciton polarizability ⟨β̅N⟩ = (0.58 ± 0.25) × 10(-8) Dm V(-1). The exciton polarizability is shown to be layer-independent, indicating a strong localization of both electron and hole wave functions in each individual layer.