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Phonoritons as Hybridized Exciton-Photon-Phonon Excitations in a Monolayer h-BN Optical Cavity

Simone Latini, Umberto De Giovannini, Edbert J. Sie, Nuh Gedik, Hannes Hübener, and Angel Rubio
Phys. Rev. Lett. 126, 227401 – Published 4 June 2021
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Abstract

A phonoriton is an elementary excitation that is predicted to emerge from hybridization between exciton, phonon, and photon. Besides the intriguing many-particle structure, phonoritons are of interest as they could serve as functional nodes in devices that utilize electronic, phononic, and photonic elements for energy conversion and thermal transport applications. Although phonoritons are predicted to emerge in an excitonic medium under intense electromagnetic wave irradiation, the stringent condition for their existence has eluded direct observation in solids. In particular, on-resonance, intense pumping schemes have been proposed, but excessive photoexcitation of carriers prevents optical detection. Here, we theoretically predict the appearance of phonoritonic features in monolayer hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) embedded in an optical cavity. The coherent superposition nature of phonoriton states is evidenced by the hybridization of exciton-polariton branches with phonon replicas that is tunable by the cavity-matter coupling strength. This finding simultaneously provides an experimental pathway for observing the predicted phonoritons and opens a new avenue for tuning materials properties.

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  • Received 24 November 2020
  • Accepted 2 April 2021

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.126.227401

Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article’s title, journal citation, and DOI. Open access publication funded by the Max Planck Society.

Published by the American Physical Society

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Condensed Matter, Materials & Applied Physics

Authors & Affiliations

Simone Latini1,*, Umberto De Giovannini1,2,†, Edbert J. Sie3,4, Nuh Gedik3, Hannes Hübener1,‡, and Angel Rubio1,2,5,§

  • 1Max Planck Institute for the Structure and Dynamics of Matter and Center for Free Electron Laser Science, 22761 Hamburg, Germany
  • 2Nano-Bio Spectroscopy Group, Departamento de Fisica de Materiales, Universidad del Pas Vasco UPV/EHU, 20018 San Sebastin, Spain
  • 3Department of Physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA
  • 4Geballe Laboratory for Advanced Materials, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305, USA
  • 5Center for Computational Quantum Physics (CCQ), The Flatiron Institute, 162 Fifth avenue, New York, New York 10010, USA

  • *simone.latini@mpsd.mpg.de
  • umberto.degiovannini@gmail.com
  • hannes.huebener@gmail.com
  • §angel.rubio@mpsd.mpg.de

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Issue

Vol. 126, Iss. 22 — 4 June 2021

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