Van der Waals waveguide quantum electrodynamics probed by infrared nano-photoluminescence
arXiv:2506.10295 · doi:10.1038/s41566-025-01694-1
Abstract
Atomically layered van der Waals (vdW) materials exhibit remarkable properties, including highly-confined infrared waveguide modes and the capacity for infrared emission in the monolayer limit. Here, we engineered structures that leverage both of these nano-optical functionalities. Specifically, we encased a photoluminescing atomic sheet of MoTe2 within two bulk crystals of WSe2, forming a vdW waveguide for the embedded light-emitting monolayer. The modified electromagnetic environment offered by the WSe2 waveguide alters MoTe2 spontaneous emission, a phenomenon we directly image with our interferometric nano-photoluminescence technique. We captured spatially-oscillating nanoscale patterns prompted by spontaneous emission from MoTe2 into waveguide modes of WSe2 slabs. We quantify the resulting Purcell-enhanced emission rate within the framework of a waveguide quantum electrodynamics (QED) model, relating the MoTe2 spontaneous emission rate to the measured waveguide dispersion. Our work marks a significant advance in the implementation of all-vdW QED waveguides.
14 pages, 5 Figues. Supplementary information can be found in the journal submission Nat. Photon. (2025)
References in corpus (19)
- Gate-tuning of graphene plasmons revealed by infrared nano-imaging
- Measurement of the optical dielectric function of transition metal dichalcogenide monolayers: MoS2, MoSe2, WS2 and WSe2
- Highly confined low-loss plasmons in graphene-boron nitride heterostructures
- Exciton Radiative Lifetime in Transition Metal Dichalcogenide Monolayers
- Strong-coupling of WSe2 in ultra-compact plasmonic nanocavities at room temperature
- Irradiation of Nanostrained Monolayer WSe for Site-Controlled Single-Photon Emission up to 150 K
- Cavity Quantum Materials
- Radiative control of dark excitons at room temperature by nano-optical antenna-tip induced Purcell effect
- Imaging strain-localized exciton states in nanoscale bubbles in monolayer WSe2 at room temperature
- Hybrid tip-enhanced nano-spectroscopy and -imaging of monolayer WSe2 with local strain control
- Model for quantitative tip-enhanced spectroscopy and the extraction of nanoscale-resolved optical constants
- Revealing Strong Plasmon-Exciton Coupling Between Nano-gap Resonators and Two-Dimensional Semiconductors at Ambient Conditions
- Collective super- and subradiant dynamics between distant optical quantum emitters
- Cavity-Enhanced 2D Material Quantum Emitters Deterministically Integrated with Silicon Nitride Microresonators
- Observation of large spontaneous emission rate enhancement of quantum dots in a broken-symmetry slow-light waveguide
- Spatial coherence of room-temperature monolayer WSe exciton-polaritons in a trap
- 99% beta factor and directional coupling of quantum dots to fast light in photonic crystal waveguides determined by hyperspectral imaging
- Direct Nano-Imaging of Light-Matter Interactions in Nanoscale Excitonic Emitters
- Highly tunable room-temperature plexcitons in monolayer WSe2 /gap-plasmon nanocavities