Collaborative Research: Moire Exciton-polariton for Analog Quantum Simulation

Understanding and designing how light interacts with materials play an important role in semiconductor technology, with applications in our daily lives ranging from solar energy harvesting and light-emitting devices to high-speed internet and high-performance computing. Engineering and enhancing this light-matter interaction are critical for advancing new technologies and even the new field of quantum information science and engineering (QISE).

One strategy is to couple exciton, an optically excited electron and hole pair, to a nanoscale cavity and form exciton-polariton (EP), which is a half-material and half-light hybrid that inherits the advantages of both worlds. The photon nature allows us to manipulate the EP via optical engineering, and the exciton nature enables strong interaction.

The light-matter interaction can be further enhanced in atomically thin semiconductors and engineered by stacking two of these atomic sheets together and precisely controlling their twist angle, forming a semiconducting moiré superlattice. In this proposal, we will design a systematic way to couple the nano-cavities with the semiconducting moiré superlattice to enhance the light-matter interaction to an unprecedented level, in which the device function can be drastically altered even by a single photon.

This level of strong light-matter interaction can be utilized to implement photonic quantum simulations, a way to simulate new materials whose properties arise from complicated interactions between electrons. Strategically aligned with the National Quantum Initiative and Semiconductor Technology Initiative, this proposal will develop new course materials to train students for careers in high-demand, cutting-edge semiconductor, optical science, and QISE fields.

Hands-on summer workshops on optics and nanofabrication for K-12 and under-represented minority students will be organized. The results from this proposal will be disseminated to both the scientific community and the general public to raise national awareness of the importance of QISE and semiconductor technology innovations.

This proposal aims to develop a quantum nonlinear optical device platform to understand and engineer light-matter interactions in two-dimensional (2D) materials for analog quantum simulations. The project will accomplish a hybrid device that couples the robust excitons in a semiconducting moiré superlattice to nanophotonic resonators, forming a quasiparticle known as moiré exciton-polariton (EP), a half-material and half-light hybrid.

The exciton in the semiconducting moiré superlattices formed by atomically thin transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDCs) can be tailored with even stronger interaction thanks to the electronic and excitonic flatbands. Therefore, the moiré superlattice hosts fascinating correlated insulating electronic states, and the exciton resonances are modified due to the moiré potential confinement.

Strong coupling of the moiré excitons with the ultra-small mode-volume nanophotonic resonators and resonator arrays will lead to a unique moiré-EP platform for studying correlated excitonic physics and realizing nonlinear phonon-phonon interactions down to the single-photon level, paving the way to transformative quantum nano-optoelectronics such as analog quantum simulations. The proposed research will also transform the current state of power-efficient optical information processing and quantum optoelectronics.

This proposal will develop education components well integrated with the proposed research to train students for the future workforce in semiconductor, optical science, and QISE fields. This proposal will develop learning opportunities on optics and nanofabrication for K-12 and under-represented minority students. The results from this proposal will be disseminated to a wide scientific audience and shared with the general public.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.