Superconducting Magnet Enabled Low-temperature Magneto-optical Spectroscopy of Van der Waals Heterostructures in a Confocal Microscope Setup
Abstract
Van der Waals (vdW) heterostructures refer to the two-dimensional materials stacked together through vdW interactions, which provide unprecedented opportunities for material engineering and novel device applications. Transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDCs) represents a new class of atomically thin semiconductor with superior electronic and optoelectronic properties such as the direct bandgap, large exciton binding energy, and a new quantum degree of freedom called valleyspin. VdW heterostructures with the TMDCs being the center block have been demonstrated to show ultrafast carrier transfer, the formation of interlayer excitons, and the emergence of superconductivity. Recently it has been shown that the TMDC moire superlattices would host strongly correlated electrons and intriguing excitonic states. Exploration of the emerging physics in TMDCs-based vdW heterostructures strongly aligns with the interest of the Department of Defense (DoD), since it could lead to nanoscale power-efficient Van der Waals (vdW) heterostructures refer to the two-dimensional materials stacked together through vdW interactions, which provide unprecedented opportunities for material engineering and novel device applications. Transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDCs) represents a new class of atomically thin semiconductor with superior electronic and optoelectronic properties such as the direct bandgap, large exciton binding energy, and a new quantum degree of freedom called valleyspin. VdW heterostructures with the TMDCs being the center block have been demonstrated to show ultrafast carrier transfer, the formation of interlayer excitons, and the emergence of superconductivity. Recently it has been shown that the TMDC moire superlattices would host strongly correlated electrons and intriguing excitonic states. Exploration of the emerging physics in TMDCs-based vdW heterostructures strongly aligns with the interest of the Department of Defense (DoD), since it could lead to nanoscale power-efficient electronic devices, high-speed optoelectronics, and novel devices for quantum information processing and storage.To utilize the full potential of TMDCs-based vdW heterostructures and investigate the unique physics, it is critical to have the capability of applying a strong magnet. Low-temperature magneto-transport measurement can reveal the scattering mechanism and fundamental limit of the mobility, identify insulator-to-metal transition, and unveil possible emerging hight-emperaturesuperconductivity. Low-temperature magneto-optical spectroscopy is also of vital importance, with the capability of revealing the unique valley-contrasting excitonic physics and light-matter interaction in vdW heterostructures based on TMDCs. Here we propose to acquire a superconducting magnet and integrate it into our low-temperature confocal microscope with advanced optical spectroscopy capabilities at RPI, such as simultaneous electrical and optical measurements, spatially resolved and time-resolved photocurrent measurement, low-temperature optical and photocurrent spectroscopy. The superconducting magnet-enabled magneto-opticalspectroscopy will be critical to investigating the unique valleytronics, spintronics, and correlated physics in TMDCs-based vdW heterostructures.
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Feb 29, 2024
- Source ID
- FA95502310084
Entities
People
- Sufei Shi
Organizations
- Air Force Office of Scientific Research
- Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
- United States Air Force