(Invited) Tuning Interlayer Exciton Energetics in Twisted and Stacked Materials

Abstract

Using time-space resolved ultrafast microscopy on individual 2D crystal grains, we show how long-range interlayer electronic coupling can be selectively enhanced either by applying an E-field or by twisting the layer stacking orientation. In both cases, transient interlayer exciton states form and drive the optoelectronic material response. Considering first twisted bilayer graphene (tBLG), we discovered how stacking-angle tunable absorption resonances form a strongly-bound exciton state as a consequence of the symmetrized rehybridization of the interlayer 2p orbitals.[1] Using two-photon photoluminescence and intraband-transient absorption microscopies, we have recently imaged the photoemission and exciton dynamics from single-grains of tBLG. After resonant excitation, our results suggest the formation of strongly-bound (up to 690 meV), metastable interlayer exciton states. Our observation of resonant PL emission from twisted bilayer graphene materials in Fig. 1a is best explained by the theoretically predicted coexistence of strongly-bound interlayer excitons and metallic graphene continuum states. We show how stacking angle -tunable interlayer excitons states may permit new photocurrent extraction routes from quasi-stable interlayer excitons.Unlike stacked graphene, semiconducting 2D transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDCs) have diffuse interlayer d-orbital overlap. To enhance interlayer electronic coupling in TMDCs, we apply an interlayer directed E-field, inducing electron-hole dissociation [2]. Time-resolved photocurrents show that stacked WSe2 devices can have both IQE >50% and fast (<60 ps) picosecond electron escape times. Our ultrafast photocurrent rates kinetics give the same E-field-dependent electronic escape and dissociation rates seen from optical ultrafast microscopy. To confirm the fast electronic escape rates, we show the ratio of the electronic rates accurately matches our overall WSe2 device IQE in the limit of zero Auger recombination. Collectively, we show how optical and photocurrent-based ultrafast microscopies together provide an analytical extraction of the photocurrent-generating ultrafast dynamics in both TMDCs and tBLG van der Waals stacked materials.