New half-light half-matter quantum particles created

A team of researchers led by Professor Menon created half-light, half-matter particles in atomically thin semiconductors made of a 2D layer of molybdenum and sulfur atoms. The findings were published in the journal Nature Photonics on 23 December 2014.

Professor Menon's research team included City College PhD students, Xiaoze Liu, Tal Galfsky and Zheng Sun, and scientists from Yale University, National Tsing Hua University (Taiwan) and Ecole Polytechnic- Montreal (Canada).

The study was funded by the US Army Research Laboratory's Army Research Office and the National Science Foundation.

Study Process
The team inserted the 2D material in a light trapping structure to realize these composite quantum particles.

They showed convincingly that by coupling a rather standard dielectric cavity to exciton-polaritons in a monolayer of molybdenum disulphide, they can reach this strong coupling regime with a very large binding strength.

Findings
• Formation of half-light, half-matter bosonic quasiparticles called microcavity polaritons.
• Evidence of strong light-matter coupling and the formation of microcavity polaritons in a two-dimensional atomic crystal of molybdenum disulphide embedded inside a dielectric microcavity at room temperature.
• Strong coupling at room temperature in two-dimensional materials that offer a disorder-free potential landscape provides an attractive route for the development of practical polaritonic devices.