Strained two-dimensional tungsten diselenide for mechanically tunable exciton transport
Tightly bound electron-hole pairs (excitons) hosted in atomically-thin semiconductors have emerged as prospective elements in optoelectronic devices for ultrafast and secured information transfer. The controlled exciton transport in such excitonic devices requires manipulating potential energy gradient of charge-neutral excitons, while electrical gating or nanoscale straining have shown limited efficiency of exciton transport at room temperature. Here, we report strain gradient induced exciton transport in monolayer tungsten diselenide (WSe<sub>2</sub>) across microns at room temperature via steady-state pump-probe measurement. Wrinkle architecture enabled optically-resolvable local strain (2.4%) and energy gradient (49 meV/μm) to WSe<sub>2</sub>. We observed strain gradient induced flux of high-energy excitons and emission of funneled, low-energy excitons at the 2.5 μm-away pump point with nearly 45% of relative emission intensity compared to that of excited excitons. Our results strongly support the strain-driven manipulation of exciton funneling in two-dimensional semiconductors at room temperature, opening up future opportunities of 2D straintronic exciton devices.
Authors
- Peter Snapp
- Jin Myung Kim
- Soyeong Kwon (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0433-381X)
- Kwang-Yong Jeong (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2747-6338)
- Jae‐Pil So (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5183-0918)
- Michael Cai Wang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3300-852X)
- Hong‐Gyu Park (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6375-0314)
- SungWoo Nam (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9719-7203)
Institutions
- Seoul National University (KR)
- Soongsil University (KR)
- University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (US)
- Chungnam National University (KR)
- University of California, Irvine (US)
- University of South Florida (US)
- National University College (PR)
- Irvine University (US)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Nature Communications
- Published
- 2024-12-30
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-55135-8
- Citations
- 17
- Primary Topic
- Molecular Junctions and Nanostructures
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 3.55
Funders
- National Science Foundation
- National Research Foundation
- National Research Foundation of Korea
- Ministry of Science and ICT, South Korea
- Samsung Science and Technology Foundation
- Samsung
- Materials Research Science and Engineering Center, Harvard University
- Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada
- Institute for Information and Communications Technology Promotion
- Office of Naval Research
- Division of Materials Research
- Division of Chemical, Bioengineering, Environmental, and Transport Systems
- Division of Civil, Mechanical and Manufacturing Innovation
- Division of Electrical, Communications and Cyber Systems
- Air Force Office of Scientific Research