Abstract
Exciton physics in atomically thin transition-metal dichalcogenides (TMDCs) holds paramount importance for fundamental physics research and prospective applications. However, the experimental exploration of exciton physics, including excitonic coherence dynamics, exciton many-body interactions, and their optical properties, faces challenges stemming from factors such as spatial heterogeneity and intricate many-body effects. In this perspective, we elaborate upon how optical two-dimensional coherent spectroscopy (2DCS) emerges as an effective tool to tackle the challenges, and outline potential directions for gaining deeper insights into exciton physics in forthcoming experiments with the advancements in 2DCS techniques and new materials.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
A. Castellanos-Gomez, Why all the fuss about 2D semiconductors, Nat. Photonics 10(4), 202 (2016)
G. Wang, A. Chernikov, M. M. Glazov, T. F. Heinz, X. Marie, T. Amand, and B. Urbaszek, Colloquium: Excitons in atomically thin transition metal dichalcogenides, Rev. Mod. Phys. 90(2), 021001 (2018)
W. P. Aue, E. Bartholdi, and R. R. Ernst, Two dimensional spectroscopy. Application to nuclear magnetic resonance, J. Chem. Phys. 64(5), 2229 (1976)
Y. Tanimura and S. Mukamel, Two-dimenoional femtosecond vibrational spectroscopy of liquids, J. Chem. Phys. 99(12), 9496 (1993)
S. T. Cundiff and S. Mukamel, Optical multidimensional coherent spectroscopy, Phys. Today 66(7), 44 (2013)
P. Hamm, M. Lim, W. F. DeGrado, and R. M. Hochstrasser, The two-dimensional IR nonlinear spectroscopy of a cyclic penta-peptide in relation to its three dimensional structure, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 96(5), 2036 (1999)
O. Golonzka, M. Khalil, N. Demirdöven, and A. Tokmakoff, Vibrational anharmonicities revealed by coherent two-dimensional infrared spectroscopy, Phys. Rev. Lett. 86(10), 2154 (2001)
F. D. Fuller and J. P. Ogilvie, Experimental implementations of two-dimensional Fourier transform electronic spectroscopy, Annu. Rev. Phys. Chem. 66(1), 667 (2015)
M. Cho, Coherent Multidimensional Spectroscopy, Springer, 2019
H. Li, B. Lomsadze, G. Moody, C. Smallwood, and S. T. Cundiff, Optical Multidimensional Coherent Spectroscopy, Oxford University Press, 2023
T. Brixner, J. Stenger, H. M. Vaswani, M. Cho, R. E. Blankenship, and G. R. Fleming, Two-dimensional spectroscopy of electronic couplings in photosynthesis, Nature 434(7033), 625 (2005)
E. Collini, C. Y. Wong, K. E. Wilk, P. M. Curmi, P. Brumer, and G. D. Scholes, Coherently wired light harvesting in photosynthetic marine algae at ambient temperature, Nature 463(7281), 644 (2010)
C. J. Fecko, J. D. Eaves, J. J. Loparo, A. Tokmakoff, and P. L. Geissler, Ultrafast hydrogen-bond dynamics in the infrared spectroscopy of water, Science 301(5640), 1698 (2003)
B. Dereka, Q. Yu, N. H. C. Lewis, W. B. Carpenter, J. M. Bowman, and A. Tokmakoff, Crossover from hydrogen to chemical bonding, Science 371(6525), 160 (2021)
X. Dai, M. Richter, H. Li, A. D. Bristow, C. Falvo, S. Mukamel, and S. T. Cundiff, Two-dimensional doublequantum spectra reveal collective resonances in an atomic vapor, Phys. Rev. Lett. 108(19), 193201 (2012)
S. Yu, M. Titze, Y. Zhu, X. Liu, and H. Li, Observation of scalable and deterministic multi-atom Dicke states in an atomic vapor, Opt. Lett. 44(11), 2795 (2019)
K. W. Stone, K. Gundogdu, D. B. Turner, X. Li, S. T. Cundiff, and K. A. Nelson, Two-quantum 2D FT electronic spectroscopy of biexcitons in GaAs quantum wells, Science 324(5931), 1169 (2009)
J. M. Richter, F. Branchi, F. Valduga de Almeida Camargo, B. Zhao, R. H. Friend, G. Cerullo, and F. Deschler, Ultrafast carrier thermalization in lead iodide perovskite probed with two-dimensional electronic spectroscopy, Nat. Commun. 8(1), 376 (2017)
J. Nishida, J. P. Breen, K. P. Lindquist, D. Umeyama, H. I. Karunadasa, and M. D. Fayer, Dynamically disordered lattice in a layered Pb-I-SCN perovskite thin film probed by two dimensional infrared spectroscopy, J. Am. Chem. Soc. 140(31), 9882 (2018)
G. Moody, C. Kavir Dass, K. Hao, C. H. Chen, L. J. Li, A. Singh, K. Tran, G. Clark, X. Xu, G. Berghäuser, E. Malic, A. Knorr, and X. Li, Intrinsic homogeneous linewidth and broadening mechanisms of excitons in monolayer transition metal dichalcogenides, Nat. Commun. 6(1), 8315 (2015)
L. Guo, C. A. Chen, Z. Zhang, D. M. Monahan, Y. H. Lee, and G. R. Fleming, Lineshape characterization of excitons in monolayer WS2 by two-dimensional electronic spectroscopy, Nanoscale Adv. 2(6), 2333 (2020)
T. Jakubczyk, V. Delmonte, M. Koperski, K. Nogajewski, C. Faugeras, W. Langbein, M. Potemski, and J. Kasprzak, Radiatively limited dephasing and exciton dynamics in MoSe2 monolayers revealed with four-wave mixing microscopy, Nano Lett. 16(9), 5333 (2016)
T. Jakubczyk, K. Nogajewski, M. R. Molas, M. Bartos, W. Langbein, M. Potemski, and J. Kasprzak, Impact of environment on dynamics of exciton complexes in a WS2 monolayer, 2D Mater. 5, 031007 (2018)
C. Boule, D. Vaclavkova, M. Bartos, K. Nogajewski, L. Zdražil, T. Taniguchi, K. Watanabe, M. Potemski, and J. Kasprzak, Coherent dynamics and mapping of excitons in single-layer MoSe2 and WSe2 at the homogeneous limit, Phys. Rev. Mater. 4(3), 034001 (2020)
T. L. Purz, E. W. Martin, W. G. Holtzmann, P. Rivera, A. Alfrey, K. M. Bates, H. Deng, X. Xu, and S. T. Cundiff, Imaging dynamic exciton interactions and coupling in transition metal dichalcogenides, J. Chem. Phys. 156(21), 214704 (2022)
K. F. Mak, K. He, J. Shan, and T. F. Heinz, Control of valley polarization in monolayer MoS2 by optical helicity, Nat. Nanotechnol. 7(8), 494 (2012)
Z. Ye, D. Sun, and T. F. Heinz, Optical manipulation of valley pseudospin, Nat. Phys. 13(1), 26 (2017)
K. Hao, G. Moody, F. Wu, C. K. Dass, L. Xu, C. H. Chen, L. Sun, M. Y. Li, L. J. Li, A. H. MacDonald, and X. Li, Direct measurement of exciton valley coherence in monolayer WSe2, Nat. Phys. 12(7), 677 (2016)
M. Titze, B. Li, X. Zhang, P. M. Ajayan, and H. Li, Intrinsic coherence time of trions in monolayer MoSe2 measured via two-dimensional coherent spectroscopy, Phys. Rev. Mater. 2(5), 054001 (2018)
K. Hao, L. Xu, F. Wu, P. Nagler, K. Tran, X. Ma, C. Schüller, T. Korn, A. H. MacDonald, G. Moody, and X. Li, Trion valley coherence in monolayer semiconductors, 2D Mater. 4, 025105 (2017)
J. B. Muir, J. Levinsen, S. K. Earl, M. A. Conway, J. H. Cole, M. Wurdack, R. Mishra, D. J. Ing, E. Estrecho, Y. Lu, D. K. Efimkin, J. O. Tollerud, E. A. Ostrovskaya, M. M. Parish, and J. A. Davis, Interactions between Fermi polarons in monolayer WS2, Nat. Commun. 13(1), 6164 (2022)
D. Huang, K. Sampson, Y. Ni, Z. Liu, D. Liang, K. Watanabe, T. Taniguchi, H. Li, E. Martin, J. Levinsen, M. M. Parish, E. Tutuc, D. K. Efimkin, and X. Li, Quantum dynamics of attractive and repulsive polarons in a doped MoSe2 monolayer, Phys. Rev. X 33(1), 011029 (2023)
S. Helmrich, K. Sampson, D. Huang, M. Selig, K. Hao, K. Tran, A. Achstein, C. Young, A. Knorr, E. Malic, U. Woggon, N. Owschimikow, and X. Li, Phonon-assisted intervalley scattering determines ultrafast exciton dynamics in MoSe2 bilayers, Phys. Rev. Lett. 127(15), 157403 (2021)
D. Li, C. Trovatello, S. Dal Conte, M. Nuß, G. Soavi, G. Wang, A. C. Ferrari, G. Cerullo, and T. Brixner, Exciton-phonon coupling strength in single-layer MoSe2 at room temperature, Nat. Commun. 12(1), 954 (2021)
D. Li, H. Shan, C. Rupprecht, H. Knopf, K. Watanabe, T. Taniguchi, Y. Qin, S. Tongay, M. Nuß, S. Schröder, F. Eilenberger, S. Höfling, C. Schneider, and T. Brixner, Hybridized exciton-photon-phonon states in a transition metal dichalcogenide van der Waals heterostructure microcavity, Phys. Rev. Lett. 128(8), 087401 (2022)
L. Guo, M. Wu, T. Cao, D. M. Monahan, Y. H. Lee, S. G. Louie, and G. R. Fleming, Exchange-driven intravalley mixing of excitons in monolayer transition metal dichalcogenides, Nat. Phys. 15(3), 228 (2019)
L. T. Lloyd, R. E. Wood, F. Mujid, S. Sohoni, K. L. Ji, P. C. Ting, J. S. Higgins, J. Park, and G. S. Engel, Sub-10 fs intervalley exciton coupling in monolayer MoS2 revealed by helicity-resolved two-dimensional electronic spectroscopy, ACS Nano 15(6), 10253 (2021)
V. Mapara, A. Barua, V. Turkowski, M. T. Trinh, C. Stevens, H. Liu, F. A. Nugera, N. Kapuruge, H. R. Gutierrez, F. Liu, X. Zhu, D. Semenov, S. A. McGill, N. Pradhan, D. J. Hilton, and D. Karaiskaj, Bright and dark exciton coherent coupling and hybridization enabled by external magnetic fields, Nano Lett. 22(4), 1680 (2022)
A. Singh, G. Moody, S. Wu, Y. Wu, N. J. Ghimire, J. Yan, D. G. Mandrus, X. Xu, and X. Li, Coherent electronic coupling in atomically thin MoSe2, Phys. Rev. Lett. 112(21), 216804 (2014)
K. Hao, L. Xu, P. Nagler, A. Singh, K. Tran, C. K. Dass, C. Schüller, T. Korn, X. Li, and G. Moody, Coherent and incoherent coupling dynamics between neutral and charged excitons in monolayer MoSe2, Nano Lett. 16(8), 5109 (2016)
A. Rodek, T. Hahn, J. Howarth, T. Taniguchi, K. Watanabe, M. Potemski, P. Kossacki, D. Wigger, and J. Kasprzak, Controlled coherent-coupling and dynamics of exciton complexes in a MoSe2 monolayer, 2D Mater. 10, 025027 (2023)
R. Tempelaar and T. C. Berkelbach, Many-body simulation of two-dimensional electronic spectroscopy of excitons and trions in monolayer transition metal dichalcogenides, Nat. Commun. 10(1), 3419 (2019)
K. Hao, J. F. Specht, P. Nagler, L. Xu, K. Tran, A. Singh, C. K. Dass, C. Schüller, T. Korn, M. Richter, A. Knorr, X. Li, and G. Moody, Neutral and charged intervalley biexcitons in monolayer MoSe2, Nat. Commun. 8(1), 15552 (2017)
R. E. Wood, L. T. Lloyd, F. Mujid, L. Wang, M. A. Allodi, H. Gao, R. Mazuski, P. C. Ting, S. Xie, J. Park, and G. S. Engel, Evidence for the dominance of carrier-induced band gap renormalization over biexciton formation in cryogenic ultrafast experiments on MoS2 monolayers, J. Phys. Chem. Lett. 11(7), 2658 (2020)
M. A. Conway, J. B. Muir, S. K. Earl, M. Wurdack, R. Mishra, J. O. Tollerud, and J. A. Davis, Direct measurement of biexcitons in monolayer WS2, 2D Mater. 9, 021001 (2022)
C. Mai, A. Barrette, Y. Yu, Y. G. Semenov, K. W. Kim, L. Cao, and K. Gundogdu, Many-body effects in valleytronics: Direct measurement of valley lifetimes in single-layer MoS2, Nano Lett. 14(1), 202 (2014)
I. Kylänpää and H. P. Komsa, Binding energies of exciton-complexes in transition metal dichalcogenide monolayers and effect of dielectric environment, Phys. Rev. B 92(20), 205418 (2015)
M. Aeschlimann, T. Brixner, A. Fischer, C. Kramer, P. Melchior, W. Pfeiffer, C. Schneider, C. Strüber, P. Tuchscherer, and D. V. Voronine, Coherent two-dimensional nanoscopy, Science 333(6050), 1723 (2011)
K. S. Novoselov, A. Mishchenko, A. Carvalho, and A. H. Castro Neto, 2D materials and van der Waals heterostructures, Science 353(6298), aac9439 (2016)
T. L. Purz, E. W. Martin, P. Rivera, W. G. Holtzmann, X. Xu, and S. T. Cundiff, Coherent exciton-exciton interactions and exciton dynamics in a MoSe2/WSe2 heterostructure, Phys. Rev. B 104(24), L241302 (2021)
V. R. Policht, M. Russo, F. Liu, C. Trovatello, M. Maiuri, Y. Bai, X. Zhu, S. Dal Conte, and G. Cerullo, Dissecting interlayer hole and electron transfer in transition metal dichalcogenide heterostructures via two-dimensional electronic spectroscopy, Nano Lett. 21(11), 4738 (2021)
D. Huang, J. Choi, C. K. Shih, and X. Li, Excitons in semiconductor moiré superlattices, Nat. Nanotechnol. 17(3), 227 (2022)
K. F. Mak and J. Shan, Semiconductor moiré materials, Nat. Nanotechnol. 17(7), 686 (2022)
C. E. Stevens, J. Paul, T. Cox, P. K. Sahoo, H. R. Gutiérrez, V. Turkowski, D. Semenov, S. A. McGill, M. D. Kapetanakis, I. E. Perakis, D. J. Hilton, and D. Karaiskaj, Biexcitons in monolayer transition metal dichalcogenides tuned by magnetic fields, Nat. Commun. 9(1), 3720 (2018)
V. Mapara, C. E. Stevens, J. Paul, A. Barua, J. L. Reno, S. A. McGill, D. J. Hilton, and D. Karaiskaj, Multidimensional spectroscopy of magneto-excitons at high magnetic fields, J. Chem. Phys. 155(20), 204201 (2021)
S. I. Azzam, K. Parto, and G. Moody, Prospects and challenges of quantum emitters in 2D materials, Appl. Phys. Lett. 118(24), 240502 (2021)
Acknowledgements
The authors thank Xiaoqin Li for her valuable discussions. S. Y. and X. L. acknowledge the support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 12121004 and 12004391), the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (Grants Nos. 2020T130682 and 2019M662752), the Science and Technology Department of Hubei Province (Grant No. 2020CFA029), and the Knowledge Innovation Program of Wuhan-Shuguang Project. T. J. acknowledges the support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 62175188 and 62005198) and the Shanghai Science and Technology Innovation Action Plan Project (Grant No. 23ZR1465800). X. C. acknowledges support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 61925504, 62020106009, and 6201101335), Science and Technology Commission of Shanghai Municipality (Grant Nos. 17JC1400800, 20JC1414600, and 21JC1406100), and the Special Development Funds for Major Projects of Shanghai Zhangjiang National Independent Innovation Demonstration Zone (Grant No. ZJ2021-ZD-008). D. H. acknowledges the support from the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding authors
Ethics declarations
Declarations The authors declare that they have no competing interests and there are no conflicts.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Chen, Y., Yu, S., Jiang, T. et al. Optical two-dimensional coherent spectroscopy of excitons in transition-metal dichalcogenides. Front. Phys. 19, 23301 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11467-023-1345-8
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11467-023-1345-8