Hybridized Exciton-Photon-Phonon States in a Transition Metal Dichalcogenide van der Waals Heterostructure Microcavity

• Published in: Physical review letters Vol. 128; no. 8; p. 087401
• Main Authors: Li, Donghai, Shan, Hangyong, Rupprecht, Christoph, Knopf, Heiko, Watanabe, Kenji, Taniguchi, Takashi, Qin, Ying, Tongay, Sefaattin, Nuß, Matthias, Schröder, Sven, Eilenberger, Falk, Höfling, Sven, Schneider, Christian, Brixner, Tobias
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States American Physical Society (APS) 25-02-2022
• Subjects: CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND SUPERFLUIDITY; confocal imaging; exciton polariton; femtosecond laser spectroscopy; fluorescence spectroscopy; four-wave mixing; phonon polariton; Physics; transition metal dichalcogenides
• ISSN: 0031-9007; 1079-7114
• DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.128.087401

Excitons in atomically thin transition-metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) have been established as an attractive platform to explore polaritonic physics, owing to their enormous binding energies and giant oscillator strength. Basic spectral features of exciton polaritons in TMD microcavities, thus far, were conventionally explained via two-coupled-oscillator models. This ignores, however, the impact of phonons on the polariton energy structure. Here we establish and quantify the threefold coupling between excitons, cavity photons, and phonons. For this purpose, we employ energy-momentum-resolved photoluminescence and spatially resolved coherent two-dimensional spectroscopy to investigate the spectral properties of a high-quality-factor microcavity with an embedded WSe_{2} van der Waals heterostructure at room temperature. Our approach reveals a rich multibranch structure which thus far has not been captured in previous experiments. Simulation of the data reveals hybridized exciton-photon-phonon states, providing new physical insight into the exciton polariton system based on layered TMDs.