Photonics in Flatland: Challenges and Opportunities for Nanophotonics with 2D Semiconductors
arXiv:2507.00336 · doi:10.1038/s44310-025-00092-3
Abstract
Two-dimensional (2D) semiconductors are emerging as a versatile platform for nanophotonics, offering unprecedented tunability in optical properties through exciton resonance engineering, van der Waals heterostructuring, and external field control. These materials enable active optical modulation, single-photon emission, quantum photonics, and valleytronic functionalities, paving the way for next-generation optoelectronic and quantum photonic devices. However, key challenges remain in achieving large-area integration, maintaining excitonic coherence, and optimizing amplitude-phase modulation for efficient light manipulation. Advances in fabrication, strain engineering, and computational modelling will be crucial to overcoming these limitations. This perspective highlights recent progress in 2D semiconductor-based nanophotonics, emphasizing opportunities for scalable integration into photonics.
39 pages, 7 figures
References in corpus (64)
- Two Dimensional Atomic Crystals
- 2D materials and van der Waals heterostructures
- Valley polarization in MoS2 monolayers by optical pumping
- Photonic quantum technologies
- Ultrafast Charge Transfer in Atomically Thin MoS2/WS2 Heterostructures
- Quantum computational advantage using photons
- Light-emitting diodes by bandstructure engineering in van der Waals heterostructures
- Integrated Photonic Quantum Technologies
- Measurement of the optical dielectric function of transition metal dichalcogenide monolayers: MoS2, MoSe2, WS2 and WSe2
- Graphene Plasmonics: Challenges and Opportunities
- Emergence of magnetism in graphene materials and nanostructures
- Non-linear Optical Spectroscopy of Excited Exciton States for Efficient Valley Coherence Generation in WSe2 Monolayers
- Moiré heterostructures as a condensed matter quantum simulator
- Intervalley scattering, long-range disorder, and effective time reversal symmetry breaking in graphene
- Electrical suppression of all nonradiative recombination pathways in monolayer semiconductors
- Engineering symmetry breaking in two-dimensional layered materials
- Ultrathin quantum light source enabled by a nonlinear van der Waals crystal with vanishing interlayer-electronic-coupling
- Ultrafast Generation of Pseudo-magnetic Field for Valley Excitons in WSe2 Monolayers
- Exciton Valley Dynamics probed by Kerr Rotation in WSe2 Monolayers
- Nanoscale chiral valley-photon interface through optical spin-orbit coupling
- Ultrafast Manipulation of Valley Pseudospin
- Probing the influence of dielectric environment on excitons in monolayer WSe2: Insight from high magnetic fields
- Atomically thin mirrors made of monolayer semiconductors
- Gate-tunable negative refraction of mid-infrared polaritons
- High-contrast plasmonic-enhanced shallow spin defects in hexagonal boron nitride for quantum sensing
- Quantum Nanophotonics in Two-Dimensional Materials
- Photocurrent as a multi-physics diagnostic of quantum materials
- Strong mid-infrared photoresponse in small-twist-angle bilayer graphene
- Towards compact phase-matched and waveguided nonlinear optics in atomically layered semiconductors
- Giant Gating Tunability of Optical Refractive Index in Transition Metal Dichalcogenide Monolayers
- Ultra-clean assembly of van der Waals heterostructures
- Tunable and giant valley-selective Hall effect in gapped bilayer graphene
- Post-2000 Nonlinear Optical Materials and Measurements: Data Tables and Best Practices
- Roadmap for Photonics with 2D Materials
- Giant ultra-broadband photoconductivity in twisted graphene heterostructures
- Carbon and vacancy centers in hexagonal boron nitride
- Ultra-bright single photon source based on an atomically thin material
- Exploring the Structural Stability, Electronic and Thermal Attributes of synthetic 2D Materials and their Heterostructures
- Detection of paramagnetic spins with an ultrathin van der Waals quantum sensor
- Quantum sensing of paramagnetic spins in liquids with spin qubits in hexagonal boron nitride
- Magnetic field imaging by hBN quantum sensor nanoarray
- Tailoring Polarization in WSe Quantum Emitters through Deterministic Strain Engineering
- Achiral dielectric metasurfaces for spectral and polarization control of valley specific light emission from monolayer MoS2
- Strain control of exciton and trion spin-valley dynamics in monolayer transition metal dichalcogenides
- Valley Polarization-Electric Dipole Interference and Nonlinear Chiral Selection Rules in Monolayer WSe
- Excitonic beam steering in an active van der Waals metasurface
- Stark Effect of Doped Two-Dimensional Transition Metal Dichalcogenides
- In-plane Exciton Polaritons vs Plasmon Polaritons: Nonlocal corrections, confinement and loss
- Beam steering at the nanosecond time scale with an atomically thin reflector
- Engineering 2D material exciton lineshape with graphene/h-BN encapsulation
- Light-matter coupling and non-equilibrium dynamics of exchange-split trions in monolayer WS2
- Probing Electronic States in Monolayer Semiconductors through Static and Transient Third-Harmonic Spectroscopy
- 2D Semiconductors Superlattices as Hyperbolic Materials
- Circumventing the polariton bottleneck via dark excitons in 2D semiconductors
- Single-photon emitters in WSe: Critical role of phonons on excitation schemes and indistinguishability
- Impact of substrates and quantum effects on exciton line shapes of 2D semiconductors at room temperature
- Influence of resonant plasmonic nanoparticles on optically accessing the valley degree of freedom in 2D semiconductors
- Approaching the absorption limit with monolayer semiconductor superlattices
- A steady state approach for studying valley relaxation using optical vortex beam
- High-purity and stable single-photon emission in bilayer WSe via phonon-assisted excitation
- The Importance of Pure Dephasing in the Optical Response of Excitons in High-quality van der Waals Heterostructures
- Toward single-photon detection with superconducting niobium diselenide nanowires
- Temperature-dependent Optical and Polaritonic Properties of hBN-encapsulated Monolayer TMDs
- Electrically tunable strong coupling in a hybrid-2D excitonic metasurface for optical modulation