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The recent discoveries of two-dimensional (2D) magnets1-6 and their stacking into van der Waals structures7-11 have expanded the horizon of 2D phenomena. One exciting application is to exploit coherent magnons12 as energy-efficient information carriers in spintronics and magnonics13,14 or as interconnects in hybrid quantum systems15-17. A particular opportunity arises when a 2D magnet is also a semiconductor, as reported recently for CrSBr (refs. 18-20) and NiPS3 (refs. 21-23) that feature both tightly bound excitons with a large oscillator strength and potentially long-lived coherent magnons owing to the bandgap and spatial confinement. Although magnons and excitons are energetically mismatched by orders of magnitude, their coupling can lead to efficient optical access to spin information. Here we report strong magnon-exciton coupling in the 2D A-type antiferromagnetic semiconductor CrSBr. Coherent magnons launched by above-gap excitation modulate the exciton energies. Time-resolved exciton sensing reveals magnons that can coherently travel beyond seven micrometres, with a coherence time of above five nanoseconds. We observe these exciton-coupled coherent magnons in both even and odd numbers of layers, with and without compensated magnetization, down to the bilayer limit. Given the versatility of van der Waals heterostructures, these coherent 2D magnons may be a basis for optically accessible spintronics, magnonics and quantum interconnects.
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Strong coupling between photonic modes and molecular electronic excitations, creating hybrid light-matter states called polaritons, is an attractive avenue for controlling chemical reactions. Nevertheless, experimental demonstrations of polariton-modified chemical reactions remain sparse. Here, we demonstrate modified photoisomerization kinetics of merocyanine and diarylethene by coupling the reactant's optical transition with photonic microcavity modes. We leverage broadband Fourier-plane optical microscopy to noninvasively and rapidly monitor photoisomerization within microcavities, enabling systematic investigation of chemical kinetics for different cavity-exciton detunings and photoexcitation conditions. We demonstrate three distinct effects of cavity coupling: first, a renormalization of the photonic density of states, akin to a Purcell effect, leads to enhanced absorption and isomerization rates at certain wavelengths, notably red-shifting the onset of photoisomerization. This effect is present under both strong and weak light-matter couplings. Second, kinetic competition between polariton localization into reactive molecular states and cavity losses leads to a suppression of the photoisomerization yield. Finally, our key result is that in reaction mixtures with multiple reactant isomers, exhibiting partially overlapping optical transitions and distinct isomerization pathways, the cavity resonance can be tuned to funnel photoexcitations into specific reactant isomers. Thus, upon decoherence, polaritons localize into a chosen isomer, selectively triggering the latter's photoisomerization despite initially being delocalized across all isomers. This result suggests that careful tuning of the cavity resonance is a promising avenue to steer chemical reactions and enhance product selectivity in reaction mixtures.
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We develop a microscopic theory for the multimode polariton dispersion in materials coupled to cavity radiation modes. Starting from a microscopic light-matter Hamiltonian, we devise a general strategy for obtaining simple matrix models of polariton dispersion curves based on the structure and spatial location of multilayered 2D materials inside the optical cavity. Our theory exposes the connections between seemingly distinct models that have been employed in the literature and resolves an ambiguity that has arisen concerning the experimental description of the polaritonic band structure. We demonstrate the applicability of our theoretical formalism by fabricating various geometries of multilayered perovskite materials coupled to cavities and demonstrating that our theoretical predictions agree with the experimental results presented here.
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Hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) hosts phonon polaritons (PhP), hybrid light-matter states that facilitate electromagnetic field confinement and exhibit long-range ballistic transport. Extracting the spatiotemporal dynamics of PhPs usually requires "tour de force" experimental methods such as ultrafast near-field infrared microscopy. Here, we leverage the remarkable environmental sensitivity of excitons in two-dimensional transition metal dichalcogenides to image PhP propagation in adjacent hBN slabs. Using ultrafast optical microscopy on monolayer WSe2/hBN heterostructures, we image propagating PhPs from 3.5 K to room temperature with subpicosecond and few-nanometer precision. Excitons in WSe2 act as transducers between visible light pulses and infrared PhPs, enabling visible-light imaging of PhP transport with far-field microscopy. We also report evidence of excitons in WSe2 copropagating with hBN PhPs over several micrometers. Our results provide new avenues for imaging polar excitations over a large frequency range with extreme spatiotemporal precision and new mechanisms to realize ballistic exciton transport at room temperature.
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The optoelectronic and transport properties of two-dimensional transition metal dichalcogenide semiconductors (2D TMDs) are highly susceptible to external perturbation, enabling precise tailoring of material function through postsynthetic modifications. Here, we show that nanoscale inhomogeneities known as nanobubbles can be used for both strain and, less invasively, dielectric tuning of exciton transport in bilayer tungsten diselenide (WSe2). We use ultrasensitive spatiotemporally resolved optical scattering microscopy to directly image exciton transport, revealing that dielectric nanobubbles are surprisingly efficient at funneling and trapping excitons at room temperature, even though the energies of the bright excitons are negligibly affected. Our observations suggest that exciton funneling in dielectric inhomogeneities is driven by momentum-indirect (dark) excitons whose energies are more sensitive to dielectric perturbations than bright excitons. These results reveal a new pathway to control exciton transport in 2D semiconductors with exceptional spatial and energetic precision using dielectric engineering of dark state energetic landscapes.
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Semicondutores , Elementos de Transição , Microscopia , Fenômenos Físicos , TungstênioRESUMO
The ability of energy carriers to move between atoms and molecules underlies biochemical and material function. Understanding and controlling energy flow, however, requires observing it on ultrasmall and ultrafast spatio-temporal scales, where energetic and structural roadblocks dictate the fate of energy carriers. Here, we developed a non-invasive optical scheme that leverages non-resonant interferometric scattering to track tiny changes in material polarizability created by energy carriers. We thus map evolving energy carrier distributions in four dimensions of spacetime with few-nanometre lateral precision and directly correlate them with material morphology. We visualize exciton, charge and heat transport in polyacene, silicon and perovskite semiconductors and elucidate how disorder affects energy flow in three dimensions. For example, we show that morphological boundaries in polycrystalline metal halide perovskites possess lateral- and depth-dependent resistivities, blocking lateral transport for surface but not bulk carriers. We also reveal strategies for interpreting energy transport in disordered environments that will direct the design of defect-tolerant materials for the semiconductor industry of tomorrow.
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Inorganic lead halide perovskite nanostructures show promise as the active layers in photovoltaics, light emitting diodes, and other optoelectronic devices. They are robust in the presence of oxygen and water, and the electronic structure and dynamics of these nanostructures can be tuned through quantum confinement. Here we create aligned bundles of CsPbBr3 nanowires with widths resulting in quantum confinement of the electronic wave functions and subject them to ultrafast microscopy. We directly image rapid one-dimensional exciton diffusion along the nanowires, and we measure an exciton trap density of roughly one per nanowire. Using transient absorption microscopy, we observe a polarization-dependent splitting of the band edge exciton line, and from the polarized fluorescence of nanowires in solution, we determine that the exciton transition dipole moments are anisotropic in strength. Our observations are consistent with a model in which splitting is driven by shape anisotropy in conjunction with long-range exchange.
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Creating artificial systems that mimic and surpass those found in nature is one of the great challenges of modern science. In the context of photosynthetic light harvesting, the difficulty lies in attaining utmost control over the energetics, positions and relative orientations of chromophores in densely packed arrays to transfer electronic excitation energy to desired locations with high efficiency. Toward achieving this goal, we use a highly versatile biomimetic protein scaffold from the tobacco mosaic virus coat protein on which chromophores can be attached at precise locations via linkers of differing lengths and rigidities. We show that minor linker modifications, including switching chiral configurations and alkyl chain shortening, lead to significant lengthening of the ultrafast excited state dynamics of the system as the linkers are shortened and rigidified. Molecular dynamics simulations provide molecular-level detail over how the chromophore attachment orientations, positions, and distances from the protein surface lead to the observed trends in system dynamics. In particular, we find that short and rigid linkers are able to sandwich water molecules between chromophore and protein, leading to chromophore-water-protein supracomplexes with intricately coupled dynamics that are highly dependent on their local protein environment. In addition, cyclohexyl-based linkers are identified as ideal candidates to retain rotational correlations over several nanoseconds and thus lock relative chromophore orientations throughout the lifetime of an exciton. Combining linker engineering with judicious placement of chromophores on the hydrated protein scaffold to exploit different chromophore-bath couplings provides a clear and effective path to producing highly controllable artificial light-harvesting systems that can increasingly mimic their natural counterparts, thus aiding to elucidate natural photosynthetic mechanisms.
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Materiais Biomiméticos/química , Proteínas do Capsídeo/química , Corantes/química , Complexos de Proteínas Captadores de Luz/química , Vírus do Mosaico do Tabaco/química , Biomimética , Reagentes de Ligações Cruzadas/química , Cicloexanos/química , Transferência de Energia , Simulação de Dinâmica Molecular , Pigmentos Biológicos/química , Teoria Quântica , Água/químicaRESUMO
Modification of light-harvesting units with anchoring groups for surface attachment often compromises light-harnessing properties. Herein, a series of [donor-acceptor-anchor] platinum(II) diimine (bis-)acetylides was developed in order to systematically compare the effect of conjugated versus electronically decoupled modes of attachment of protected anchoring groups on the photophysical properties of light-harvesting units. The first examples of "decoupled" phosphonate diimine PtII complexes are reported, and their properties are compared and contrasted to those of carboxylate analogues studied by a diversity of methods. Ultrafast time-resolved IR and transient absorption spectroscopy revealed that all complexes have a charge-transfer (CT) lowest excited state with lifetimes between 2 and 14â ns. Vibrational signatures and dynamics of CT states were identified; the assignment of electronic states and their vibrational origin was aided by TDDFT calculations. Ultrafast energy redistribution accompanied by structural changes was directly captured in the CT states. A significant difference between the structures of the electronic ground and CT excited states, as well as differences in the structural reorganisation in the complexes bearing directly attached or electronically decoupled anchoring groups, was discovered. This work demonstrates that decoupling of the anchoring group from the light-harvesting core by a saturated spacer is an easy approach to combine surface attachment with high reduction potential and ten times longer lifetime of the CT excited state of the light-absorbing unit, and retain electron-transfer photoreactivity essential for light-harvesting applications.
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The Born-Oppenheimer approximation refers to the assumption that the nuclear and electronic wave functions describing a molecular system evolve and can be determined independently. It is now well-known that this approximation often breaks down and that nuclear-electronic (vibronic) coupling contributes greatly to the ultrafast photophysics and photochemistry observed in many systems ranging from simple molecules to biological organisms. In order to probe vibronic coupling in a time-dependent manner, one must use spectroscopic tools capable of correlating the motions of electrons and nuclei on an ultrafast time scale. Recent developments in nonlinear multidimensional electronic and vibrational spectroscopies allow monitoring both electronic and structural factors with unprecedented time and spatial resolution. In this Account, we present recent studies from our group that make use of different variants of frequency-domain transient two-dimensional infrared (T-2DIR) spectroscopy, a pulse sequence combining electronic and vibrational excitations in the form of a UV-visible pump, a narrowband (12 cm(-1)) IR pump, and a broadband (400 cm(-1)) IR probe. In the first example, T-2DIR is used to directly compare vibrational dynamics in the ground and relaxed electronic excited states of Re(Cl)(CO)3(4,4'-diethylester-2,2'-bipyridine) and Ru(4,4'-diethylester-2,2'-bipyridine)2(NCS)2, prototypical charge transfer complexes used in photocatalytic CO2 reduction and electron injection in dye-sensitized solar cells. The experiments show that intramolecular vibrational redistribution (IVR) and vibrational energy transfer (VET) are up to an order of magnitude faster in the triplet charge transfer excited state than in the ground state. These results show the influence of electronic arrangement on vibrational coupling patterns, with direct implications for vibronic coupling mechanisms in charge transfer excited states. In the second example, we show unambiguously that electronic and vibrational movement are coupled in a donor-bridge-acceptor complex based on a Pt(II) trans-acetylide design motif. Time-resolved IR (TRIR) spectroscopy reveals that the rate of electron transfer (ET) is highly dependent on the amount of excess energy localized on the bridge following electronic excitation. Using an adaptation of T-2DIR, we are able to selectively perturb bridge-localized vibrational modes during charge separation, resulting in the donor-acceptor charge separation pathway being completely switched off, with all excess energy redirected toward the formation of a long-lived intraligand triplet state. A series of control experiments reveal that this effect is mode specific: it is only when the high-frequency bridging C≡C stretching mode is pumped that radical changes in photoproduct yields are observed. These experiments therefore suggest that one may perturb electronic movement by stimulating structural motion along the reaction coordinate using IR light. These studies add to a growing body of evidence suggesting that controlling the pathways and efficiency of charge transfer may be achieved through synthetic and perturbative approaches aiming to modulate vibronic coupling. Achieving such control would represent a breakthrough for charge transfer-based applications such as solar energy conversion and molecular electronics.
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Asymmetric isotopic labeling of parallel and identical electron- or energy-transfer pathways in symmetrical molecular assemblies is an extremely challenging task owing to the inherent lack of isotopic selectivity in conventional synthetic methods. Yet, it would be a highly valuable tool in the study and control of complex light-matter interactions in molecular systems by exclusively and nonintrusively labeling one of otherwise identical reaction pathways, potentially directing charge and energy transport along a chosen path. Here we describe the first selective synthetic route to asymmetrically labeled organometallic compounds, on the example of charge-transfer platinum(II) cis-acetylide complexes. We demonstrate the selective (13)C labeling of one of two acetylide groups. We further show that such isotopic labeling successfully decouples the two ν(C≡C) in the mid-IR region, permitting independent spectroscopic monitoring of two otherwise identical electron-transfer pathways, along the (12)C≡(12)C and (13)C≡(13)C coordinates. Quantum-mechanical mixing leads to intriguing complex features in the vibrational spectra of such species, which we successfully model by full-dimensional anharmonically corrected DFT calculations, despite the large size of these systems. The synthetic route developed and demonstrated herein should lead to a great diversity of asymmetric organometallic complexes inaccessible otherwise, opening up a plethora of opportunities to advance the fundamental understanding and control of light-matter interactions in molecular systems.
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Thanks to major advances in laser technologies, recent investigations of the ultrafast coupling of nuclear and electronic degrees of freedom (vibronic coupling) have revealed that such coupling plays a crucial role in a wide range of photoinduced reactions in condensed phase supramolecular systems. This paper investigates several new donor-bridge-acceptor charge-transfer molecular assemblies built on a trans-Pt(II) acetylide core. We also investigate how targeted vibrational excitation with low-energy IR light post electronic excitation can perturb vibronic coupling and affect the efficiency of electron transfer (ET) in solution phase. We compare and contrast properties of a range of donor-bridge-acceptor Pt(II) trans-acetylide assemblies, where IR excitation of bridge vibrations during UV-initiated charge separation in some cases alters the yields of light-induced product states. We show that branching to multiple product states from a transition state with appropriate energetics is the most rigid condition for the type of vibronic control we demonstrate in our study.
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Understanding the dynamics of the initial stages of vibrational energy transfer in transition metal complexes is a challenging fundamental question which is also of crucial importance for many applications, such as improving the performance of solar devices or photocatalysis. The present study investigates vibrational energy transport in the ground and the electronic excited state of Ru(4,4'-(COOEt)2-2,2-bpy)2(NCS)2, a close relative of the efficient "N3" dye used in dye-sensitized solar cells. Using the emerging technique of ultrafast two-dimensional infrared spectroscopy, we show that, similarly to other transition-metal complexes, the central Ru heavy atom acts as a "bottleneck" making the energy transfer from small ligands with high energy vibrational stretching frequencies less favorable and thereby affecting the efficiency of vibrational energy flow in the complex. Comparison of the vibrational relaxation times in the electronic ground and excited state of Ru(4,4'-(COOEt)2-2,2-bpy)2(NCS)2 shows that it is dramatically faster in the latter. We propose to explain this observation by the intramolecular electrostatic interactions between the thiocyanate group and partially oxidised Ru metal center, which increase the degree of vibrational coupling between CN and Ru-N modes in the excited state thus reducing structural and thermodynamic barriers that slow down vibrational relaxation and energy transport in the electronic ground state. As a very similar behavior was earlier observed in another transition-metal complex, Re(4,4'-(COOEt)2-2,2'-bpy)(CO)3Cl, we suggest that this effect in vibrational energy dynamics might be common for transition-metal complexes with heavy central atoms.
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The donor-acceptor complex [((O,N)Q(2-))Pt(pap(0))] (1; pap = phenylazopyridine, (O,N)Q(0) = 4,6-di-tert-butyl-N-phenyl-o-iminobenzoquinone), which displays strong π-bonding interactions and shows strong absorption in the near-IR region, has been investigated with respect to its redox-induced reactivity and electrochemical and excited-state properties. The one-electron-oxidized product [((O,N)Q(â¢-))Pt(pap(0))](BF4) ([1]BF4) was chemically isolated. Single-crystal X-ray diffraction studies establish the iminosemiquinone form of (O,N)Q in [1](+). Simulation of the cyclic voltammograms of 1 recorded in the presence of PPh3 elucidates the mechanism and delivers relevant thermodynamic and kinetic parameters for the redox-induced reaction with PPh3. The thermodynamically stable product of this reaction, complex [((O,N)Q(â¢-)) Pt(PPh3)2](PF6) ([2]PF6), was isolated and characterized by X-ray crystallography, electrochemistry, and electron paramagnetic resonance spectroscopy. Picosecond time-resolved infrared spectroscopic studies on complex 1b (one of the positional isomers of 1) and its analogue [((O,O)Q(2-))Pt(pap(0))] (3; (O,O)Q = 3,5-di-tert-butyl-o-benzoquinone) provided insight into the excited-state dynamics and revealed that the nature of the lowest excited state in the amidophenolate complex 1b is primarily diimine-ligand-based, while it is predominantly an interligand charge-transfer state in the case of 3. Density functional theory calculations on [1](n+) provided further insight into the nature of the frontier orbitals of various redox forms and vibrational mode assignments. We discuss the mechanistic details of the newly established redox-induced reactivity of 1 with electron donors and propose a mechanism for this process.
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Ultraclean graphene at charge neutrality hosts a quantum critical Dirac fluid of interacting electrons and holes. Interactions profoundly affect the charge dynamics of graphene, which is encoded in the properties of its electron-photon collective modes: surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs). Here, we show that polaritonic interference patterns are particularly well suited to unveil the interactions in Dirac fluids by tracking polaritonic interference in time at temporal scales commensurate with the electronic scattering. Spacetime SPP interference patterns recorded in terahertz (THz) frequency range provided unobstructed readouts of the group velocity and lifetime of polariton that can be directly mapped onto the electronic spectral weight and the relaxation rate. Our data uncovered prominent departures of the electron dynamics from the predictions of the conventional Fermi-liquid theory. The deviations are particularly strong when the densities of electrons and holes are approximately equal. The proposed spacetime imaging methodology can be broadly applied to probe the electrodynamics of quantum materials.
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Several recent studies have shown that the combination of photosensitizers with metalloenzymes can support a light-driven multielectron reduction of molecules such as CO(2) or HCN. Here we show that the association of the zinc tetramethylpyridinium porphyrin (ZnTMPyP(4+)) photosensitizer with the multicopper oxidase (MCO) laccase allows to link the oxidation of an organic molecule to the four electrons reduction of dioxygen into water. The enzyme is photoreduced within minutes with porphyrin/enzyme ratio as low as 1:40. With a 1:1 ratio, the dioxygen consumption rate is 1.7 µmol L(-1) s(-1). Flash photolysis experiments support the formation of the triplet excited state of ZnTMPyP(4+) which reduces the enzyme to form a radical cation of the porphyrin with a k(ET) ≈ 10(7) s(-1) M(-1). The long-lived triplet excited state of the ZnTMPyP(4+) (τ(0) = 0.72 ms) accounts for a substantial electron-transfer quantum yield, φ(ET) = 0.35. Consequently, the enzyme-dependent photo-oxidation of the electron donor occurs with a turnover of 8 min(-1) for the one-electron oxidation process, thereby supporting the suitability of such enzyme/sensitizer hybrid systems for aerobic photodriven transformations on substrates. This study is the first example of a phorphyrin-sensitized four-electron reduction of an enzyme of the MCO family, leading to photoreduction of dioxygen into water.
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Lacase/química , Luz , Oxigênio/química , Porfirinas/químicaRESUMO
Semiconductor excitations can hybridize with cavity photons to form exciton-polaritons (EPs) with remarkable properties, including light-like energy flow combined with matter-like interactions. To fully harness these properties, EPs must retain ballistic, coherent transport despite matter-mediated interactions with lattice phonons. Here we develop a nonlinear momentum-resolved optical approach that directly images EPs in real space on femtosecond scales in a range of polaritonic architectures. We focus our analysis on EP propagation in layered halide perovskite microcavities. We reveal that EP-phonon interactions lead to a large renormalization of EP velocities at high excitonic fractions at room temperature. Despite these strong EP-phonon interactions, ballistic transport is maintained for up to half-exciton EPs, in agreement with quantum simulations of dynamic disorder shielding through light-matter hybridization. Above 50% excitonic character, rapid decoherence leads to diffusive transport. Our work provides a general framework to precisely balance EP coherence, velocity, and nonlinear interactions.
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Diagnóstico por Imagem , Hibridização Genética , Difusão , Movimento (Física) , FônonsRESUMO
Fully leveraging the remarkable properties of low-dimensional semiconductors requires developing a deep understanding of how their structure and disorder affect the flow of electronic energy. Here, we study exciton transport in single crystals of the two-dimensional superatomic semiconductor CsRe6Se8I3, which straddles a photophysically rich yet elusive intermediate electronic-coupling regime. Using femtosecond scattering microscopy to directly image exciton transport in CsRe6Se8I3, we reveal the rare coexistence of coherent and incoherent exciton transport, leading to either persistent or transient electronic delocalization depending on temperature. Notably, coherent excitons exhibit ballistic transport at speeds approaching an extraordinary 1600 km/s over 300 fs. Such fast transport is mediated by J-aggregate-like superradiance, owing to the anisotropic structure and long-range order of CsRe6Se8I3. Our results establish superatomic crystals as ideal platforms for studying the intermediate electronic-coupling regime in highly ordered environments, in this case displaying long-range electronic delocalization, ultrafast energy flow, and a tunable dual transport regime.
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The transport of energy and information in semiconductors is limited by scattering between electronic carriers and lattice phonons, resulting in diffusive and lossy transport that curtails all semiconductor technologies. Using Re6Se8Cl2, a van der Waals (vdW) superatomic semiconductor, we demonstrate the formation of acoustic exciton-polarons, an electronic quasiparticle shielded from phonon scattering. We directly imaged polaron transport in Re6Se8Cl2 at room temperature, revealing quasi-ballistic, wavelike propagation sustained for a nanosecond and several micrometers. Shielded polaron transport leads to electronic energy propagation lengths orders of magnitude greater than in other vdW semiconductors, exceeding even silicon over a nanosecond. We propose that, counterintuitively, quasi-flat electronic bands and strong exciton-acoustic phonon coupling are together responsible for the transport properties of Re6Se8Cl2, establishing a path to ballistic room-temperature semiconductors.
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Exciton polaritons are quasiparticles of photons coupled strongly to bound electron-hole pairs, manifesting as an anti-crossing light dispersion near an exciton resonance. Highly anisotropic semiconductors with opposite-signed permittivities along different crystal axes are predicted to host exotic modes inside the anti-crossing called hyperbolic exciton polaritons (HEPs), which confine light subdiffractionally with enhanced density of states. Here, we show observational evidence of steady-state HEPs in the van der Waals magnet chromium sulfide bromide (CrSBr) using a cryogenic near-infrared near-field microscope. At low temperatures, in the magnetically-ordered state, anisotropic exciton resonances sharpen, driving the permittivity negative along one crystal axis and enabling HEP propagation. We characterize HEP momentum and losses in CrSBr, also demonstrating coupling to excitonic sidebands and enhancement by magnetic order: which boosts exciton spectral weight via wavefunction delocalization. Our findings open new pathways to nanoscale manipulation of excitons and light, including routes to magnetic, nonlocal, and quantum polaritonics.