Mapping of the dark exciton landscape in transition metal dichalcogenides

Transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) exhibit a remarkable exciton physics including bright and optically forbidden dark excitonic states. Here, we show how dark excitons can be experimentally revealed by probing the intraexcitonic 1s-2p transition. Distinguishing the optical response shortly after the excitation and after the exciton thermalization allows us to reveal the relative position of bright and dark excitons. We find both in theory and experiment a clear blueshift in the optical response demonstrating the transition of bright exciton populations into lower-lying dark excitonic states.