No Arabic abstract
Exciton optical transitions in transition-metal dichalcogenides offer unique opportunities to study rich many-body physics. Recent experiments in monolayer WSe$_2$ and WS$_2$ have shown that while the low-temperature photoluminescence from neutral excitons and three-body complexes is suppressed in the presence of elevated electron densities or strong photoexcitation, new dominant peaks emerge in the low-energy side of the spectrum. I present a theory that elucidates the nature of these optical transitions showing the role of the intervalley Coulomb interaction. After deriving a compact dynamical form for the Coulomb potential, I calculate the self-energy of electrons due to their interaction with this potential. For electrons in the upper valleys of the spin-split conduction band, the self energy includes a moderate redshift due to exchange, and most importantly, a correlation-induced virtual state in the band-gap. The latter sheds light on the origin of the luminescence in monolayer WSe$_2$ and WS$_2$ in the presence of pronounced many-body interactions.
Recently, the celebrated Keldysh potential has been widely used to describe the Coulomb interaction of few-body complexes in monolayer transition-metal dichalcogenides. Using this potential to model charged excitons (trions), one finds a strong dependence of the binding energy on whether the monolayer is suspended in air, supported on SiO$_2$, or encapsulated in hexagonal boron-nitride. However, empirical values of the trion binding energies show weak dependence on the monolayer configuration. This deficiency indicates that the description of the Coulomb potential is still lacking in this important class of materials. We address this problem and derive a new potential form, which takes into account the three atomic sheets that compose a monolayer of transition-metal dichalcogenides. The new potential self-consistently supports (i) the non-hydrogenic Rydberg series of neutral excitons, and (ii) the weak dependence of the trion binding energy on the environment. Furthermore, we identify an important trion-lattice coupling due to the phonon cloud in the vicinity of charged complexes. Neutral excitons, on the other hand, have weaker coupling to the lattice due to the confluence of their charge neutrality and small Bohr radius.
Just as photons are the quanta of light, plasmons are the quanta of orchestrated charge-density oscillations in conducting media. Plasmon phenomena in normal metals, superconductors and doped semiconductors are often driven by long-wavelength Coulomb interactions. However, in crystals whose Fermi surface is comprised of disconnected pockets in the Brillouin zone, collective electron excitations can also attain a shortwave component when electrons transition between these pockets. Here, we show that the band structure of monolayer transition-metal dichalcogenides gives rise to an intriguing mechanism through which shortwave plasmons are paired up with excitons. The coupling elucidates the origin for the optical side band that is observed repeatedly in monolayers of WSe$_2$ and WS$_2$ but not understood. The theory makes it clear why exciton-plasmon coupling has the right conditions to manifest itself distinctly only in the optical spectra of electron-doped tungsten-based monolayers.
Atomically thin transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) are direct-gap semiconductors with strong light-matter and Coulomb interaction. The latter accounts for tightly bound excitons, which dominate the optical properties of these technologically promising materials. Besides the optically accessible bright excitons, these systems exhibit a variety of dark excitonic states. They are not visible in optical spectra, but can strongly influence the coherence lifetime and the linewidth of the emission from bright exciton states. In a recent study, an experimental evidence for the existence of such dark states has been demonstrated, as well as their strong impact on the quantum efficiency of light emission in TMDs. Here, we reveal the microscopic origin of the excitonic coherence lifetime in two representative TMD materials (WS$_2$ and MoSe$_2$) within a joint study combining microscopic theory with optical experiments. We show that the excitonic coherence lifetime is determined by phonon-induced intra- and intervalley scattering into dark excitonic states. Remarkably, and in accordance with the theoretical prediction, we find an efficient exciton relaxation in WS$_2$ through phonon emission at all temperatures.
Many-body interactions in monolayer transition-metal dichalcogenides are strongly affected by their unique band structure. We study these interactions by measuring the energy shift of neutral excitons (bound electron-hole pairs) in gated WSe$_2$ and MoSe$_2$. Surprisingly, while the blueshift of the neutral exciton, $X^0$, in electron-doped samples can be more than 10~meV, the blueshift in hole-doped samples is nearly absent. Taking into account dynamical screening and local-field effects, we present a transparent and analytical model that elucidates the crucial role played by intervalley plasmons in electron-doped conditions. The energy shift of $X^0$ as a function of charge density is computed showing agreement with experiment, where the renormalization of $X^0$ by intervalley plasmons yields a stronger blueshift in MoSe$_2$ than in WSe$_2$ due to differences in their band ordering.
Transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDCs) have emerged as a new two dimensional materials field since the monolayer and few-layer limits show different properties when compared to each other and to their respective bulk materials. For example, in some cases when the bulk material is exfoliated down to a monolayer, an indirect-to-direct band gap in the visible range is observed. The number of layers $N$ ($N$ even or odd) drives changes in space group symmetry that are reflected in the optical properties. The understanding of the space group symmetry as a function of the number of layers is therefore important for the correct interpretation of the experimental data. Here we present a thorough group theory study of the symmetry aspects relevant to optical and spectroscopic analysis, for the most common polytypes of TMDCs, i.e. $2Ha$, $2Hc$ and $1T$, as a function of the number of layers. Real space symmetries, the group of the wave vectors, the relevance of inversion symmetry, irreducible representations of the vibrational modes, optical selection rules and Raman tensors are discussed.