No Arabic abstract
Bose condensation has shaped our understanding of macroscopic quantum phenomena, having been realized in superconductors, atomic gases, and liquid helium. Excitons are bosons that have been predicted to condense into either a superfluid or an insulating electronic crystal. Using the recently developed momentum-resolved electron energy-loss spectroscopy (M-EELS), we study electronic collective modes in the transition metal dichalcogenide semimetal, 1T-TiSe$_2$. Near the phase transition temperature, T$_c$ = 190 K, the energy of the electronic mode falls to zero at nonzero momentum, indicating dynamical slowing down of plasma fluctuations and crystallization of the valence electrons into an exciton condensate. Our study provides compelling evidence for exciton condensation in a three-dimensional solid and establishes M-EELS as a versatile technique sensitive to valence band excitations in quantum materials.
We study theoretically the Coulomb interaction between excitons in transition metal dichalcogenide (TMD) monolayers. We calculate direct and exchange interaction for both ground and excited states of excitons. The screening of the Coulomb interaction, specific to monolayer structures, leads to the unique behavior of the exciton-exciton scattering for excited states, characterized by the non-monotonic dependence of the interaction as function of the transferred momentum. We find that the nontrivial screening enables the description of TMD exciton interaction strength by approximate formula which includes exciton binding parameters. The influence of screening and dielectric environment on the exciton-exciton interaction was studied, showing qualitatively different behavior for ground state and excited states of excitons. Furthermore, we consider exciton-electron interaction, which for the excited states is governed by the dominant attractive contribution of the exchange component, which increases with the excitation number. The results provide a quantitative description of the exciton-exciton and exciton-electron scattering in transition metal dichalcogenides, and are of interest for the design of perspective nonlinear optical devices based on TMD monolayers.
We have investigated the exciton dynamics in transition metal dichalcogenide mono-layers using time-resolved photoluminescence experiments performed with optimized time-resolution. For MoSe2 monolayers, we measure $tau_{rad}=1.8pm0.2$ ps that we interpret as the intrinsic radiative recombination time. Similar values are found for WSe2 mono-layers. Our detailed analysis suggests the following scenario: at low temperature (T $leq$ 50 K), the exciton oscillator strength is so large that the entire light can be emitted before the time required for the establishment of a thermalized exciton distribution. For higher lattice temperatures, the photoluminescence dynamics is characterized by two regimes with very different characteristic times. First the PL intensity drops drastically with a decay time in the range of the picosecond driven by the escape of excitons from the radiative window due to exciton- phonon interactions. Following this first non-thermal regime, a thermalized exciton population is established gradually yielding longer photoluminescence decay times in the nanosecond range. Both the exciton effective radiative recombination and non-radiative recombination channels including exciton-exciton annihilation control the latter. Finally the temperature dependence of the measured exciton and trion dynamics indicates that the two populations are not in thermodynamical equilibrium.
Recent advances in tuning the correlated behavior of graphene and transition-metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) have opened a new frontier in the study of many-body physics in two dimensions and promise exciting possibilities for new quantum technologies. An emerging field where these materials have yet to make a deep impact is the study of antiferromagnetic (AFM) spintronics - a relatively new research direction that promises technologies that are insensitive to external magnetic fields, fast switching times, and reduced crosstalk. In this study we present measurements on the intercalated TMD Fe1/3NbS2 which exhibits antiferromagnetic ordering below 42K. We find that current densities on the order of 10^4 A/cm^2 can reorient the magnetic order, the response of which can be detected in the samples resistance. This demonstrates that Fe1/3NbS2 can be used as an antiferromagnetic switch with electronic write-in and read-out. This switching is found to be stable over time and remarkably robust to external magnetic fields. Fe1/3NbS2 is a rare example of an AFM system that exhibits fully electronic switching behavior in single crystal form, making it appealing for low-power, low-temperature memory storage applications. Moreover, Fe1/3NbS2 is part of a much larger family of magnetically intercalated TMDs, some of which may exhibit the switching behavior at higher temperatures and form a platform from which to build tunable AFM spintronic devices.
The direct gap interband transitions in transition metal dichalcogenides monolayers are governed by chiral optical selection rules. Determined by laser helicity, optical transitions in either the $K^+$ or $K^-$ valley in momentum space are induced. Linearly polarized laser excitation prepares a coherent superposition of valley states. Here we demonstrate the control of the exciton valley coherence in monolayer WSe2 by tuning the applied magnetic field perpendicular to the monolayer plane. We show rotation of this coherent superposition of valley states by angles as large as 30 degrees in applied fields up to 9 T. This exciton valley coherence control on ps time scale could be an important step towards complete control of qubits based on the valley degree of freedom.
In the presence of multiple bands, well-known electronic instabilities may acquire new complexity. While multiband superconductivity is the subject of extensive studies, the possibility of multiband charge density waves (CDWs) has been largely ignored so far. Here, combining energy dependent scanning tunnelling microscopy (STM) topography with a simple model of the charge modulations and a self-consistent calculation of the CDW gap, we find evidence for a multiband CDW in 2H-NbSe$_2$. This CDW not only involves the opening of a gap on the inner band around the K-point, but also on the outer band. This leads to spatially out-of-phase charge modulations from electrons on these two bands, which we detect through a characteristic energy dependence of the CDW contrast in STM images.