Observation of Exciton Redshift-Blueshift Crossover in Monolayer WS<sub>2</sub>.

Sie, E J; Steinhoff, A; Gies, C; Lui, C H; Ma, Q; Rösner, M; Schönhoff, G; Jahnke, F et al. · Nano Lett · 2017

basic_science · Level V

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Abstract

We report a rare atom-like interaction between excitons in monolayer WS<sub>2</sub>, measured using ultrafast absorption spectroscopy. At increasing excitation density, the exciton resonance energy exhibits a pronounced redshift followed by an anomalous blueshift. Using both material-realistic computation and phenomenological modeling, we attribute this observation to plasma effects and an attraction-repulsion crossover of the exciton-exciton interaction that mimics the Lennard-Jones potential between atoms. Our experiment demonstrates a strong analogy between excitons and atoms with respect to interparticle interaction, which holds promise to pursue the predicted liquid and crystalline phases of excitons in two-dimensional materials.