paper

Valley-selective exciton bistability in a suspended monolayer semiconductor

arXiv:1803.04067 · doi:10.1021/acs.nanolett.8b00987

Abstract

We demonstrate robust power- and wavelength-dependent optical bistability in fully suspended monolayers of WSe2 near the exciton resonance. Bistability has been achieved under continuous-wave optical excitation at an intensity level of 10^3 W/cm^2. The observed bistability is originated from a photo-thermal mechanism, which provides both optical nonlinearity and passive feedback, two essential elements for optical bistability. Under a finite magnetic field, the exciton bistability becomes helicity dependent, which enables repeatable switching of light purely by its polarization.

14 pages, 6 figures

Valley-selective exciton bistability in a suspended monolayer semiconductor · wovepaper