Selective Photoexcitation of Finite-Momentum Excitons in Monolayer MoS2 by Twisted Light

Enhanced Photo-excitation and Angular-Momentum Imprint of Gray Excitons in WSe2 Monolayers by Spin-Orbit-Coupled Vector Vortex Beams

A light beam can be spatially structured in the complex amplitude to possess orbital angular momentum (OAM), which introduces an extra degree of freedom alongside the intrinsic spin angular momentum (SAM) associated with circular polarization. Furthermore, superimposing two such twisted light (TL) beams with distinct SAM and OAM produces a vector vortex beam (VVB) in nonseparable states where not only complex amplitude but also polarization is spatially structured and entangled with each other. In addition to the nonseparability, the SAM and OAM in a VVB are intrinsically coupled by the optical spin-orbit interaction and constitute the profound spin-orbit physics in photonics. In this work, we present a comprehensive theoretical investigation, implemented on the first-principles base, of the intriguing light-matter interaction between VVBs and WSe2 monolayers (WSe2-MLs), one of the best-known and promising two-dimensional (2D) materials in optoelectronics dictated by excitons, encompassing bright exciton (BX) as well as various dark excitons (DXs). One of the key findings of our study is that a substantial enhancement of the photoexcitation of gray excitons (GXs), a type of spin-forbidden DX, in a WSe2-ML can be achieved through the utilization of a 3D-structured TL with the optical spin-orbit interaction. Moreover, we show that a spin-orbit-coupled VVB surprisingly allows for the imprinting of the carried optical information onto GXs in 2D materials, which is robust against the decoherence mechanisms in the materials. This suggests a promising method for deciphering the transferred angular momentum from structured light to excitons.

Anomalous layer-dependent photoluminescence spectra of supertwisted spiral WS2

Twisted stacking of two-dimensional materials with broken inversion symmetry, such as spiral MoTe2 nanopyramids and supertwisted spiral WS2, emerge extremely strong second- and third-harmonic generation. Unlike well-studied nonlinear optical effects in these newly synthesized layered materials, photoluminescence (PL) spectra and exciton information involving their optoelectronic applications remain unknown. Here, we report layer- and power-dependent PL spectra of the supertwisted spiral WS2. The anomalous layer-dependent PL evolutions that PL intensity almost linearly increases with the rise of layer thickness have been determined. Furthermore, from the power-dependent spectra, we find the power exponents of the supertwisted spiral WS2 are smaller than 1, while those of the conventional multilayer WS2 are bigger than 1. These two abnormal phenomena indicate the enlarged interlayer spacing and the decoupling interlayer interaction in the supertwisted spiral WS2. These observations provide insight into PL features in the supertwisted spiral materials and may pave the way for further optoelectronic devices based on the twisted stacking materials.

Searching for Unconventional Superfluid in Excitons of Monolayer Semiconductors

It is well known that two-dimensional (2D) bosons in homogeneous space cannot undergo real Bose-Einstein condensation, and the superfluid to normal phase transition is Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless (BKT) type, associated with vortex-antivortex pair unbinding. Here we point out a 2D bosonic system whose low energy physics goes beyond conventional paradigm of 2D homogeneous bosons, i.e., intralayer excitons in monolayer transition metal dichalcogenides. With intrinsic valley-orbit coupling and valley Zeeman energy, exciton dispersion becomes linear at small momentum, giving rise to a series of novel features. The critical temperature of Bose-Einstein condensation of these excitons is nonzero, suggesting true long-range order in 2D homogeneous system. The dispersion of Goldstone mode at long wavelength has the form ϵ(q)∼sqrt[q], in contrast to conventional linear phonon spectrum. The vortex energy deviates from the usual logarithmic form with respect to system size, but instead has an additional linear term. Superfluid to normal phase transition is no longer BKT type for system size beyond a characteristic scale, without discontinuous jump in superfluid density. With the recent experimental progress on exciton fluid at thermal equilibrium in monolayer semiconductors, our work points out an experimentally accessible system to search for unconventional 2D superfluids beyond BKT paradigm.

Single Photon Emitters with Polarization and Orbital Angular Momentum Locking in Monolayer Semiconductors

Excitons in monolayer transition metal dichalcogenide are endowed with intrinsic valley-orbit coupling between their center-of-mass motion and valley pseudospin. When trapped in a confinement potential, e.g., generated by strain field, we find that intralayer excitons are valley and orbital angular momentum (OAM) entangled. By tuning the trap profile and external magnetic field, one can engineer the exciton states at the ground state and realize a series of valley-OAM entangled states. We further show that the OAM of excitons can be transferred to emitted photons, and these novel exciton states can naturally serve as polarization-OAM locked single photon emitters, which under certain circumstance become polarization-OAM entangled, highly tunable by strain trap and magnetic field. Our proposal demonstrates a novel scheme to generate polarization-OAM locked/entangled photons at the nanoscale with a high degree of integrability and tunability, pointing to exciting opportunities for quantum information applications.

Ultrafast Cylindrical Vector Beams for Improved Energy Feedthrough and Low Roughness Surface Ablation of Metals

The use of ultrafast cylindrical vector vortex beams in laser-matter interactions permits new ablation features to be harnessed from inhomogeneous distributions of polarization and beam geometry. As a consequence, the ablation process can yield higher ablation efficiency compared with conventional Gaussian beams. These beams prevent surface quality degradation during the ablative processes. When processing stainless steel and titanium, the average surface roughness obtained by deploying the cylindrical vector is up to 94% lower than the Gaussian case, and the processing efficiency is 80% higher.

Twisted Light-Induced Photocurrent in a Silicon Nanowire Field-Effect Transistor

Light can possess orbital angular momentum (OAM), in addition to spin angular momentum (SAM), which offers nearly infinite possible values of momentum states, allowing a wider degree of freedom for information processing and communications. The OAM of light induces a selection rule that obeys the law of conservation of angular momentum as it interacts with a material, affecting the material's optical and electrical properties. In this work, silicon nanowire field-effect transistors are subjected to light with OAM, also known as twisted light. Electrical measurements on the devices consequently reveal photocurrent enhancements after incrementing the OAM of the incident light from 0ℏ (fundamental mode) to 5ℏ. Such a phenomenon is attributed to the enhancements of the photogating and the photoconductive effects under the influence of the OAM of light, the underlying mechanism of which is proposed and discussed using energy band diagrams. With these observations, a strategy for controlling photocurrent has been introduced, which can be a realization of the application in the field of optoelectronics technology.

A Steady-State Approach for Studying Valley Relaxation Using an Optical Vortex Beam

Spin-valley coupling in monolayer transition-metal dichalcogenides gives rise to valley polarization and coherence effect, limited by intervalley scattering caused by exciton-phonon, exciton-impurity, and electron-hole exchange interactions (EHEIs). We explore an approach to tune the EHEI by controlling the exciton center of mass momentum (COM) utilizing the photon distribution of higher-order optical vortex beams. By virtue of this, we have observed exciton-COM-dependent valley depolarization and decoherence, which gives us the ability to probe the valley relaxation time scale in a steady-state measurement. Our steady-state technique to probe the valley dynamics can open up a new paradigm to explore the physics of excitons in two-dimensional systems.

Control of trion-to-exciton conversion in monolayer WS2 by orbital angular momentum of light

Controlling the density of exciton and trion quasiparticles in monolayer two-dimensional (2D) materials at room temperature by nondestructive techniques is highly desired for the development of future optoelectronic devices. Here, the effects of different orbital angular momentum (OAM) lights on monolayer tungsten disulfide at both room temperature and low temperatures are investigated, which reveal simultaneously enhanced exciton intensity and suppressed trion intensity in the photoluminescence spectra with increasing topological charge of the OAM light. In addition, the trion-to-exciton conversion efficiency is found to increase rapidly with the OAM light at low laser power and decrease with increasing power. Moreover, the trion binding energy and the concentration of unbound electrons are estimated, which shed light on how these quantities depend on OAM. A phenomenological model is proposed to account for the experimental data. These findings pave a way toward manipulating the exciton emission in 2D materials with OAM light for optoelectronic applications.

Universal Scalings in Two-Dimensional Anisotropic Dipolar Excitonic Systems

Low-dimensional excitonic materials have inspired much interest owing to their novel physical and technological prospects. In particular, those with strong in-plane anisotropy are among the most intriguing but short of general analyses. We establish the universal functional form of the anisotropic dispersion in the small k limit for 2D dipolar excitonic systems. While the energy is linearly dispersed in the direction parallel to the dipole in plane, the perpendicular direction is dispersionless up to linear order, which can be explained by the quantum interference effect of the interaction among the constituents of 1D subsystems. The anisotropic dispersion results in a E^{∼0.5} scaling of the system density of states and predicts unique spectroscopic signatures including: (1) disorder-induced absorption linewidth, W(σ)∼σ^{2.8}, with σ the disorder strength, (2) temperature dependent absorption linewidth, W(T)∼T^{s+1.5}, with s the exponent of the environment spectral density, and (3) the out-of-plane angular θ dependence of the peak splittings in absorption spectra, ΔE(θ)∝sin^{2}θ. These predictions are confirmed quantitatively with numerical simulations of molecular thin films and tubules.