Professor Robert Taylor

Abstract:

Semiconducting single-walled carbon nanotubes are one-dimensional materials with great prospects for applications such as optoelectronic and quantum information devices. Yet, their optical performance is hindered by low fluorescent yield. Highly mobile excitons interacting with quenching sites are attributed to be one of the main non-radiative decay mechanisms that shortens the exciton lifetime. In this paper we report on time-integrated photoluminescence measurements on individual polymer wrapped semiconducting carbon nanotubes. An ultra narrow linewidth we observed demonstrates intrinsic exciton dynamics. Furthermore, we identify a state filling effect in individual carbon nanotubes at cryogenic temperatures as previously observed in quantum dots. We propose that each of the CNTs is segmented into a chain of zero-dimensional states confined by a varying local potential along the CNT, determined by local environmental factors such as the amount of polymer wrapping. Spectral diffusion is also observed, which is consistent with the tunneling of excitons between these confined states.

Abstract:

Two-dimensional transition metal dichalcogenides exhibit strong optical transitions with significant potential for optoelectronic devices. In particular they are suited for cavity quantum electrodynamics in which strong coupling leads to polariton formation as a root to realisation of inversionless lasing, polariton condensation and superfluidity. Demonstrations of such strongly correlated phenomena to date have often relied on cryogenic temperatures, high excitation densities and were frequently impaired by strong material disorder. At room-temperature, experiments approaching the strong coupling regime with transition metal dichalcogenides have been reported, but well resolved exciton-polaritons have yet to be achieved. Here we report a study of monolayer WS2 coupled to an open Fabry-Perot cavity at room-temperature, in which polariton eigenstates are unambiguously displayed. In-situ tunability of the cavity length results in a maximal Rabi splitting of ~ΩRabi = 70 meV, exceeding the exciton linewidth. Our data are well described by a transfer matrix model appropriate for the large linewidth regime. This work provides a platform towards observing strongly correlated polariton phenomena in compact photonic devices for ambient temperature applications.

Abstract:

The Aharonov-Bohm effect in ring structures in the presence of electronic correlation and disorder is an open issue. We report novel oscillations of a strongly correlated exciton pair, similar to a Wigner molecule, in a single nanoquantum ring, where the emission energy changes abruptly at the transition magnetic field with a fractional oscillation period compared to that of the exciton, a so-called fractional optical Aharonov-Bohm oscillation. We have also observed modulated optical Aharonov-Bohm oscillations of an electron-hole pair and an anticrossing of the photoluminescence spectrum at the transition magnetic field, which are associated with disorder effects such as localization, built-in electric field, and impurities.