Experimental observation of topological Z2 exciton-polaritons in transition metal dichalcogenide monolayers

Mengyao Li; Ivan Sinev; Fedor Benimetskiy; Tatyana Ivanova; Ekaterina Khestanova; Svetlana Kiriushechkina; Anton Vakulenko; Sriram Guddala; Maurice Skolnick; Vinod M Menon; Dmitry Krizhanovskii; Andrea Alù; Anton Samusev; Alexander B Khanikaev

doi:10.1038/s41467-021-24728-y

Experimental observation of topological Z₂ exciton-polaritons in transition metal dichalcogenide monolayers

Nat Commun. 2021 Jul 20;12(1):4425. doi: 10.1038/s41467-021-24728-y.

Authors

Mengyao Li^{1

2

3}, Ivan Sinev⁴, Fedor Benimetskiy⁴, Tatyana Ivanova⁴, Ekaterina Khestanova⁴, Svetlana Kiriushechkina¹, Anton Vakulenko¹, Sriram Guddala^{1

2}, Maurice Skolnick^{4

5}, Vinod M Menon^{2

3}, Dmitry Krizhanovskii^{4

5}, Andrea Alù^{1

3

6}, Anton Samusev⁴, Alexander B Khanikaev^{7

8

9}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Electrical Engineering, City College of New York, New York, NY, USA.
² Physics Department, City College of New York, New York, NY, USA.
³ Physics Program, Graduate Center of the City University of New York, New York, NY, USA.
⁴ Department of Physics and Engineering, ITMO University, Saint Petersburg, Russia.
⁵ Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK.
⁶ Photonics Initiative, Advanced Science Research Center, City University of New York, New York, NY, USA.
⁷ Department of Electrical Engineering, City College of New York, New York, NY, USA. akhanikaev@ccny.cuny.edu.
⁸ Physics Department, City College of New York, New York, NY, USA. akhanikaev@ccny.cuny.edu.
⁹ Physics Program, Graduate Center of the City University of New York, New York, NY, USA. akhanikaev@ccny.cuny.edu.

Abstract

The rise of quantum science and technologies motivates photonics research to seek new platforms with strong light-matter interactions to facilitate quantum behaviors at moderate light intensities. Topological polaritons (TPs) offer an ideal platform in this context, with unique properties stemming from resilient topological states of light strongly coupled with matter. Here we explore polaritonic metasurfaces based on 2D transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) as a promising platform for topological polaritonics. We show that the strong coupling between topological photonic modes of the metasurface and excitons in TMDs yields a topological polaritonic Z₂ phase. We experimentally confirm the emergence of one-way spin-polarized edge TPs in metasurfaces integrating MoSe₂ and WSe₂. Combined with the valley polarization in TMD monolayers, the proposed system enables an approach to engage the photonic angular momentum and valley and spin of excitons, offering a promising platform for photonic/solid-state interfaces for valleytronics and spintronics.

Abstract

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