Tunable quantum traps for excitons in 2D semiconductors

The realization of fully tunable quantum emitters in solid state systems has been an outstanding goal of optoelectronics and quantum photonics. In this talk, we will discuss our recent experimental results demonstrating quantum confinement of neutral excitons in monolayer Transition metal dichalcogenides with full electrical control [1]. We show that excitons can be quantum confined to below 10 nanometers using strong in-plane electric fields that induce a dc Stark shift. Using optical spectroscopy, we observe discrete excitonic states below the continuum that originate from the quantization of the motional states of excitons due to confinement. Furthermore, through magneto-optical measurements, we find that the electric field induced confinement has a dramatic influence also on the relative wavefunction of excitons. We anticipate that our quantum confinement approach may provide a scalable platform for arrays of identical single photon sources and constitute building blocks of strongly correlated photonic many-body systems.