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Abstract: Achieving fully tunable quantum confinement of optical excitations, such as excitons, has been a long-standing goal in optoelectronics and quantum photonics. Here, I will discuss our recent experimental results on achieving electrically controlled 1D quantum confinement of neutral excitons in a monolayer transition metal dichalcogenide semiconductor [1]. We show that excitons can be quantum confined at few nanometer length scales, through the dc Stark effect induced by strong in-plane electric fields in the insulating region of a p-i-n diode.

We envision that electrical confinement of such excitons with an enhanced in-plane dipole moment will boost exciton-exciton interactions, while allowing for hybridization with a microcavity or waveguide mode. Strong interactions in a 1D wire could enable the realization of a Tonks-Girardeau gas with photon correlations providing signatures of fermionization [2]. Furthermore, proper design of gate electrodes may enable novel confinement geometries, such as quantum dots and rings. As such, this system could serve as a building block for the realization of scalable arrays of identical, independently tuned quantum emitters and ultimately have implications for ongoing efforts towards creating strongly correlated photonic phases.

1-Thureja, Deepankur, et al. “Electrically tunable quantum confinement of neutral excitons.” Nature 606.7913 (2022): 298-304.

2 – Chang, D. E., et al. “Crystallization of strongly interacting photons in a nonlinear optical fibre.” Nature Physics 4.11 (2008): 884-889.