Researchers at the City University of New York (CUNY) and the University of Texas at Austin have achieved a breakthrough in manipulating one of the most elusive phenomena in modern optics – dark excitons.
By finding a way to make these previously hidden light states shine brightly and controllably, the team has opened a new frontier for faster, smaller, and more energy-efficient technologies.
Dark excitons are exotic light-matter states found in atomically thin semiconductors.
They usually remain invisible because they emit light very weakly.
Yet, their long lifetimes and low interaction with the environment make them ideal for quantum information and sensing applications.
To expose these hidden states, the research team engineered a nanoscale optical cavity made of gold nanotubes and a single layer of tungsten diselenide (WSe₂), a material only three atoms thick.
This precise setup amplified light emission from dark excitons by nearly 300,000 times. The enhancement made them not only visible but also controllable at the nanoscale.
“This work shows that we can access and manipulate light-matter states that were previously out of reach,” said Andrea Alù, the study’s principal investigator and Distinguished and Einstein Professor of Physics at the CUNY Graduate Center. Alù also directs the Photonics Initiative at the Advanced Science Research Center at CUNY.
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