Tuneable Excitonic Integrated Circuits

该项目是一个基础科学探索的新方法来操纵和限制准粒子被称为激子出现在原子薄（2D）半导体及其异质结构，目的是证明这些氢类玻色子的通量控制，因此打开一条途径激子的研究在可控的电位分布。这些研究是开创量子电子学和新的宏观量子态的芯片上玻色子对应物的基石。与此同时，激子动力学和流动的芯片上控制可以提供全新的方法来将有效的基于光子的信号通信与基于电子的信号处理技术相结合。在这个建议中，我们将进行及时和雄心勃勃的搜索，需要从根本上新颖的物理概念，使可调激子集成电路的发展工作在环境条件下。二维半导体过渡金属二硫属化物（TMDC）通常具有激子结合能超过室温下的热能。此外，它们的光物理性质可以通过控制静电掺杂、介电环境和在所谓的货车德瓦尔斯异质结构中组装的材料的堆叠顺序来调节，导致观察到由2D异质结构中空间分离的电子-空穴对组成的长寿命层间激子、莫尔激子、对应于层间激子的凝聚的高温宏观状态，类似于原子的凝聚和异质结构中层间激子的电场控制。虽然2D系统是探索激子新基础科学的理想平台，但该项目核心的雄心勃勃和及时的探索将必须克服四个主要挑战。在二维材料中，激子的有效压力是否可以被设计成取代这些不对电场做出反应的电荷中性准粒子？有没有一种新型的激子，具有非零电偶极子和足够大的振子强度，使二维异质结构中的室温电调谐？哪种2D材料更适合在环境条件下工作的可调谐激子集成电路？有没有办法控制激子的寿命？该提案将开拓对上述挑战的答案和解决方案，以实现在环境条件下操作的集成电路中的激子的控制的阶跃变化。这一及时而雄心勃勃的目标将通过探索激子物理学的新基础科学来实现，这些激子物理学在一些最有前途的材料系统中用于激子通量的片上控制，例如原子级薄半导体。

This project is a fundamental science exploration of novel ways to manipulate and confine quasiparticles known as excitons emerging in atomically thin (2D) semiconductors and their heterostructures, with the aim to demonstrate the control over fluxes of these hydrogen-like bosonic particles and therefore open a pathway to the study of excitons in controllable potential profiles. This studies are cornerstone to pioneer the on-chip bosonic counterpart of quantum electronics and novel macroscopic quantum states. At the same time the on-chip control of excitons dynamics and flow may offer radically new approaches to interface efficient photon-based signal communication to electron-based signal processing technologies. In this proposal we will undertake the timely and ambitious search for radically novel physical concepts needed to enable the development of tuneable excitonic integrated circuits working in ambient conditions.2D semiconductors transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDC) typically have an exciton binding energy exceeding the room temperature thermal energy. In addition, their photo-physical properties can be tuned by controlling the electrostatic doping, the dielectric environment and stacking sequences of materials assembled in so-called van der Waals heterostructures leading to the observation of long lived interlayer excitons consisting of spatially separated electron-hole pairs in 2D heterostructures, Moiré excitons, a high-temperature macroscopic state corresponding to the condensation of interlayer excitons akin to a condensate of atoms and the electric field control of interlayer excitons in heterostructures. Whilst 2D systems are an ideally suited platform for exploring the novel fundamental science of excitons, the ambitious and timely quest at the core of this project will have to overcome four main challenges. Can an exciton effective pressure be engineered in 2D materials to displace these charge neutral quasiparticles which do not respond to an electric field? Is there any new type of exciton with a non-zero electric dipole and a sufficiently large oscillator strength to enable room temperature electrical tuneability in 2D heterostructures? Which 2D materials are better suited for tuneable excitonic integrated circuits working in ambient conditions? Are there ways to control the exciton lifetimes? This proposal will pioneer answers and solutions to the aforementioned challenges to accomplish a step change in the control of excitons in integrated circuits operating in ambient conditions. This timely and ambitious goal will be accomplished by exploring novel fundamental science of the physics of excitons in some of the most promising material systems for the on-chip control of exciton fluxes such as atomically thin semiconductors.