Local microwave sensing of excitons and their electrical environment
Excitons in atomically thin transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) possess intriguing optical properties, drawing interest for both technology and fundamental research. However, as the demands for nanodevice applications and the exploration of fundamental physics push toward smaller, subwavelength scales, studying them locally is challenging. In this work, we introduce a cryogenic scanning probe photoelectrical sensing technique, termed exciton-resonant microwave impedance microscopy (ER-MIM), to measure the excitonic responses in a monolayer MoSe<sub>2</sub> device at 1.5K. From the microwave signal changes, we identify exciton polarons and their Rydberg states. Building on these observations, we systemically reveal the local and nonlocal effects of carrier density, inhomogeneous electric fields, as well as dielectric screening on excitons, beyond the reach of conventional probes. By further integrating deep learning techniques, we precisely extracted the electrical parameters surrounding excitons, demonstrating a quantified, exciton-assisted nanoscale electrometry. Our results provide new insight into exciton-environment interactions, establish ER-MIM as a powerful optoelectronic sensing platform, and open avenues for exciton-based quantum control and device technologies.
Authors
- Mengkun Liu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3512-9133)
- Zhi‐Xun Shen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1454-0281)
- Zhurun Ji (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0751-275X)
- Ziyan Zhu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4463-5828)
- Carlos R. Kometter (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8692-7522)
- Takashi Taniguchi (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1467-3105)
- Thomas Devereaux (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8072-9237)
- Kenji Watanabe (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3701-8119)
- Benjamin E. Feldman (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4962-0548)
- Mark E. Barber (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3674-1607)
- Jiachen Yu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5191-9541)
Institutions
- Brookhaven National Laboratory (US)
- National Institute for Materials Science (JP)
- SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory (US)
- Stanford Medicine (US)
- Stony Brook University (US)
- Stanford University (US)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Nature Communications
- Published
- 2025-10-17
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-64280-7
- Primary Topic
- 2D Materials and Applications
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00
Funders
- National Science Foundation
- U.S. Department of Energy
- Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation
- Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology
- Schweizerischer Nationalfonds zur Förderung der Wissenschaftlichen Forschung
- Office of Science
- Japan Society for the Promotion of Science
- Division of Materials Research
- Division of Electrical, Communications and Cyber Systems
- Basic Energy Sciences
- SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory
- Division of Materials Sciences and Engineering