Enhancing Ground-State Population and Macroscopic Coherence of Room-Temperature WS2 Polaritons through Engineered Confinement

Exciton polaritons (polaritons herein) in transition-metal dichalcogenide monolayers have attracted significant attention due to their potential for polariton-based optoelectronics. Many of the proposed applications rely on the ability to trap polaritons and to reach macroscopic occupation of their ground energy state. Here, we engineer a trap for room-temperature polaritons in an all-dielectric optical microcavity by locally increasing the interactions between the WS2 excitons and cavity photons. The resulting confinement enhances the population and the first-order coherence of the polaritons in the ground state, with the latter effect related to dramatic suppression of disorder-induced inhomogeneous dephasing. We also demonstrate efficient population transfer into the trap when optically injecting free polaritons outside of its periphery.

Automated summary

This study demonstrates the trapping and manipulation of polaritons at room temperature in an optical microcavity by enhancing the interactions between materials. It has significant implications for polariton-based optoelectronics in the field of electronics.