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Bosonic condensation of exciton–polaritons in an atomically thin crystal

Nature Materials volume 20, pages 1233–1239 (2021)Cite this article

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A Publisher Correction to this article was published on 14 May 2021

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Abstract

The emergence of two-dimensional crystals has revolutionized modern solid-state physics. From a fundamental point of view, the enhancement of charge carrier correlations has sparked much research activity in the transport and quantum optics communities. One of the most intriguing effects, in this regard, is the bosonic condensation and spontaneous coherence of many-particle complexes. Here we find compelling evidence of bosonic condensation of exciton–polaritons emerging from an atomically thin crystal of MoSe2 embedded in a dielectric microcavity under optical pumping at cryogenic temperatures. The formation of the condensate manifests itself in a sudden increase of luminescence intensity in a threshold-like manner, and a notable spin-polarizability in an externally applied magnetic field. Spatial coherence is mapped out via highly resolved real-space interferometry, revealing a spatially extended condensate. Our device represents a decisive step towards the implementation of coherent light-sources based on atomically thin crystals, as well as non-linear, valleytronic coherent devices.

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Fig. 1: Sample structure and map.
Fig. 2: Optical properties of TMDC polaritons.
Fig. 3: Non-linear polariton emission and emission intensity versus pump power.
Fig. 4: First-order autocorrelation measurement of the polariton condensate.
Fig. 5: Dispersion relation and circular degree of polarization under strong magnetic fields.

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Data availability

The experimental data that support the findings of this study are available in figshare with the identifier https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.14342471.

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Acknowledgements

This work was funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation)–INST 93/932-1 FUGG. The authors gratefully acknowledge funding by the State of Bavaria and Lower Saxony. Funding provided by the European Research Council (ERC project 679288, unlimit-2D) is acknowledged. T.H.H., S.K. and S.H. acknowledge financial support by DFG through the Würzburg-Dresden Cluster of Excellence on Complexity and Topology in Quantum Matter “ct.qmat” (EXC 2147, project‐id 390858490). T.H.H. acknowledges funding by the doctoral training program ‘Elitenetzwerk Bayern’ and support by the German Academic Scholarship Foundation. S.T. acknowledges funding from NSF DMR 1955889, DMR 2111812, DMR 1933214 and 1904716. S.T. also acknowledges DOE-SC0020653. E.S. and A.V.K. acknowledge Westlake University (project number 041020100118) and Program 2018R01002 funded by the Leading Innovative and Entrepreneur Team Introduction Program of Zhejiang. K.W. and T.T. acknowledge support from the Elemental Strategy Initiative conducted by the MEXT, Japan, grant number JPMXP0112101001, JSPS KAKENHI grant number JP20H00354 and the CREST (JPMJCR15F3), JST. A.V.K. acknowledges the St Petersburg State University for research grant number 73031758.

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Author notes

  1. These authors contributed equally: C. Anton-Solanas, M. Waldherr.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Technische Physik and Würzburg-Dresden Cluster of Excellence ct.qmat, Universität Würzburg, Würzburg, Germany

    Carlos Anton-Solanas, Maximilian Waldherr, Martin Klaas, Holger Suchomel, Tristan H. Harder, Sebastian Klembt & Sven Höfling

  2. Institute of Physics, Carl von Ossietzky University, Oldenburg, Germany

    Carlos Anton-Solanas & Christian Schneider

  3. University of California, Merced, Merced, CA, USA

    Hui Cai

  4. School of Science, Westlake University, Hangzhou, P. R. China

    Evgeny Sedov & Alexey V. Kavokin

  5. Institute of Natural Sciences, Westlake Institute for Advanced Study, Hangzhou, P. R. China

    Evgeny Sedov & Alexey V. Kavokin

  6. Vladimir State University named after A.G. and N.G. Stoletovs, Vladimir, Russia

    Evgeny Sedov

  7. Spin Optics Laboratory, St Petersburg State University, St Petersburg, Russia

    Alexey V. Kavokin

  8. School for Engineering of Matter, Transport, and Energy, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, USA

    Sefaattin Tongay

  9. Research Center for Functional Materials, National Institute for Materials Science, Tsukuba, Japan

    Kenji Watanabe

  10. International Center for Materials Nanoarchitectonics, National Institute for Materials Science, Tsukuba, Japan

    Takashi Taniguchi

  11. SUPA, School of Physics and Astronomy, University of St Andrews, St Andrews, UK

    Sven Höfling

Authors
  1. Carlos Anton-Solanas
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Contributions

The experiments were performed by C.A.-S. and M.W., with contributions from M.K. and T.H.H. The data analysis was performed by C.A.-S. and M.W., with contributions from T.H.H., S.K. and C.S. The Epi wafer was designed by C.S. and S.H., and grown by H.S. The device was built by M.W. Crystals were provided and customized by H.C., S.T., K.W. and T.T. The theory and simulations were performed by E.S. and C.S. with contributions from C.A.-S. and with the supervision of A.V.K. The project was supervised by C.S. All the authors participated in the writing of the manuscript.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Carlos Anton-Solanas, Sefaattin Tongay or Christian Schneider.

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Supplementary Sections 1–7, Figs. 1–10 and references.

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Anton-Solanas, C., Waldherr, M., Klaas, M. et al. Bosonic condensation of exciton–polaritons in an atomically thin crystal. Nat. Mater. 20, 1233–1239 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41563-021-01000-8

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