Direct Writing of Room Temperature Polariton Condensate Lattice.

Realizing lattices of exciton polariton condensates has been of much interest owing to the potential of such systems to realize analogue Hamiltonian simulators and physical computing architectures. Here, we report the realization of a room temperature polariton condensate lattice using a direct-write approach. Polariton condensation is achieved in a microcavity embedded with host-guest Frenkel excitons of an organic dye (rhodamine) in a small-molecule ionic isolation lattice (SMILES). The microcavity is patterned using focused ion beam etching to realize arbitrary lattice geometries, including defect sites on demand. The band structure of the lattice and the emergence of condensation are imaged using momentum-resolved spectroscopy. The introduction of defect sites is shown to lower the condensation threshold and result in the formation of a defect band in the condensation spectrum. The present approach allows us to study periodic, quasiperiodic, and disordered polariton condensate lattices at room temperature using a direct-write approach.

Highly nonlinear dipolar exciton-polaritons in bilayer MoS2.

Realizing nonlinear optical response in the low photon density limit in solid-state systems has been a long-standing challenge. Semiconductor microcavities in the strong coupling regime hosting exciton-polaritons have emerged as attractive candidates in this context. However, the weak interaction between these quasiparticles has been a hurdle in this quest. Dipolar excitons provide an attractive strategy to overcome this limitation but are often hindered by their weak oscillator strength. The interlayer dipolar excitons in naturally occurring homobilayer MoS2 alleviates this issue owing to their formation via hybridization of interlayer charge transfer exciton with intralayer B exciton. Here we demonstrate the formation of dipolar exciton polaritons in bilayer MoS2 resulting in unprecedented nonlinear interaction strengths. A ten-fold increase in nonlinearity is observed for the interlayer dipolar excitons compared to the conventional A excitons. These highly nonlinear dipolar polaritons will likely be a frontrunner in the quest for solid-state quantum nonlinear devices.

Thermalization of Fluorescent Protein Exciton-Polaritons at Room Temperature.

Fluorescent proteins (FPs) have recently emerged as a serious contender for realizing ultralow threshold room temperature exciton-polariton condensation and lasing. This contribution investigates the thermalization of FP microcavity exciton-polaritons upon optical pumping under ambient conditions. Polariton cooling is realized using a new FP molecule, called mScarlet, coupled strongly to the optical modes in a Fabry-Pérot cavity. Interestingly, at the threshold excitation energy (fluence) of ≈9 nJ per pulse (15.6 mJ cm-2 ), an effective temperature is observed, Teff  ≈ 350 ± 35 K close to the lattice temperature indicative of strongly thermalized exciton-polaritons at equilibrium. This efficient thermalization results from the interplay of radiative pumping facilitated by the energetics of the lower polariton branch and the cavity Q-factor. Direct evidence for dramatic switching from an equilibrium state into a metastable state is observed for the organic cavity polariton device at room temperature via deviation from the Maxwell-Boltzmann statistics at k‖  = 0 above the threshold. Thermalized polariton gases in organic systems at equilibrium hold substantial promise for designing room temperature polaritonic circuits, switches, and lattices for analog simulation.

Damage-Free Atomic Layer Etch of WSe2: A Platform for Fabricating Clean Two-Dimensional Devices.

The development of a controllable, selective, and repeatable etch process is crucial for controlling the layer thickness and patterning of two-dimensional (2D) materials. However, the atomically thin dimensions and high structural similarity of different 2D materials make it difficult to adapt conventional thin-film etch processes. In this work, we propose a selective, damage-free atomic layer etch (ALE) that enables layer-by-layer removal of monolayer WSe2 without altering the physical, optical, and electronic properties of the underlying layers. The etch uses a top-down approach where the topmost layer is oxidized in a self-limited manner and then removed using a selective etch. Using a comprehensive set of material, optical, and electrical characterization, we show that the quality of our ALE processed layers is comparable to that of pristine layers of similar thickness. The ALE processed WSe2 layers preserve their bright photoluminescence characteristics and possess high room-temperature hole mobilities of 515 cm2/V·s, essential for fabricating high-performance 2D devices. Further, using graphene as a testbed, we demonstrate the fabrication of ultra-clean 2D devices using a sacrificial monolayer WSe2 layer to protect the channel during processing, which is etched in the final process step in a technique we call sacrificial WSe2 with ALE processing (SWAP). The graphene transistors made using the SWAP technique demonstrate high room-temperature field-effect mobilities, up to 200,000 cm2/V·s, better than previously reported unencapsulated graphene devices.

Continuous wave terahertz radiation from antennas fabricated on C¹²-irradiated semi-insulating GaAs.

We demonstrate continuous wave (CW) terahertz generation from antennas fabricated on C12-irradiated semi-insulating (SI) GaAs substrates. The dark current drawn by the antennas fabricated on irradiated substrates is ∼3 to 4 orders of magnitude lower compared to antennas fabricated on un-irradiated substrates, while the photocurrents decrease by only ∼1.5 orders of magnitude. This can be attributed to the strong reduction of the carrier lifetime that is 2.5 orders of magnitude, with values around τ(rec)=0.2 ps. Reduced thermal heating allows for higher bias voltages to the irradiated antenna devices resulting in higher CW terahertz power, just slightly lower than that of low-temperature grown GaAs (LT GaAs)at similar excitation conditions.