Dynamic control of excitons in single-layer WSe₂ with surface acoustic waves

Single-layer (1L) WSe₂ exhibits narrow optical emission at low temperatures from a large suite of excitons, which are the dominant excited states in the 2D semiconductor. Excitons in 1L-WSe₂ can be controlled via localized strain which creates a quantum well for the excitons. The goal of this project is to dynamically manipulate excitonic properties in 1L-WSe₂ with surface acoustic wave (SAW) excitations. SAWs can be used to control and create regions of localized tensile strain and thus promise the ability to electronically control key exciton properties such as their energies and lifetimes. Our recent results have demonstrated the successful fabrication of a 1L-WSe₂/hexagonal boron nitride 2D heterostructure on a SAW device. The heterostructure configuration maintains the bright excitonic emission of the 1L-WSe₂ and exhibits high-quality excitonic phenomena. Ongoing fabrication efforts are focused on establishing microwave connectivity to the hybrid 2D material-SAW device to characterize how SAWs affect the exciton complexes and associated phenomena in 1L-WSe₂ with the overall goal of identifying new opportunities for controllable optoelectronic and photonic quantum devices.