Interlayer exciton laser of extended spatial coherence in atomically thin heterostructures

Two-dimensional semiconductors have emerged as a new class of materials for nanophotonics owing to their strong exciton-photon interaction(1,2) and their ability to be engineered and integrated into devices(3). Here we take advantage of these properties to engineer an efficient lasing medium based on direct-bandgap interlayer excitons in rotationally aligned atomically thin heterostructures(4). Lasing is measured from a transition-metal dichalcogenide heterobilayer (WSe2-MoSe2) integrated in a silicon nitride grating resonator. An abrupt increase in the spatial coherence of the emission is observed acrossthe lasing threshold. The work establishes interlayer excitons in two-dimensional heterostructures as a gain medium with spatially coherent lasing emission and potential for heterogeneous integration. With electrically tunable exciton-photon interaction strengths(5) and long-range dipolar interactions, these interlayer excitons are promising for application as low-power, ultrafast lasers and modulators and for the study of many-body quantum phenomena(6).