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HIGHLIGHTS OF 2019

Excitons in 2D heterostructures

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Stacks of atomically thin semiconducting transition metal dichalcogenides offer exciting opportunities for the study of new optical phenomena. In 2019, a number of studies uncovered many aspects of the underlying physics that can be understood in terms of well-known, but also new, exotic, types of exciton.

Key advances

  • Excitons in transition metal dichalcogenide heterostructures form a Bose–Einstein condensate at unusually high temperatures.

  • In large-period moiré superlattices, interlayer excitons are trapped and may emit circularly polarized single photons.

  • In small-period moiré superlattices, normally dark excitonic states can emit light.

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Fig. 1: Excitons in stacks of atomically thin semiconducting TMDs.

Change history

  • 10 January 2020

    The Competing interest statement is added as it was missing from the previous version.

References

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK

    Alexander Tartakovskii

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  1. Alexander Tartakovskii
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Correspondence to Alexander Tartakovskii.

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The author declares no competing interests.

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Tartakovskii, A. Excitons in 2D heterostructures. Nat Rev Phys 2, 8–9 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s42254-019-0136-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s42254-019-0136-1

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