Tunable quantum confinement of neutral excitons using electric fields and exciton-charge interactions

Abstract: Quantum confinement is the discretization of energy when motion of particles is restricted to length scales smaller than their de Broglie wavelength. The experimental realization of this effect has had wide ranging impact in diverse fields of physics and facilitated the development of new technologies. In semiconductor physics, quantum confinement of optically excited quasiparticles, such as excitons or trions, is typically achieved by modulation of material properties - an approach crucially limited by the lack of insitu tunability and scalability of confining potentials. Achieving fully tunable quantum confinement of optical excitations has therefore been an outstanding goal in quantum photonics. Here, we demonstrate electrically controlled quantum confinement of neutral excitons in a gate-defined monolayer p-i-n diode. A combination of dc Stark shift induced by large in-plane fields and a previously unknown confining mechanism based on repulsive interaction between excitons and free charges ensures tight exciton confinement in the narrow neutral region. Quantization of exciton motion manifests in multiple discrete, spectrally narrow, voltage-dependent optical resonances that emerge below the free exciton resonance. Our measurements reveal several unique physical features of these quantum confined excitons, including an in-plane dipolar character, one-dimensional center-of-mass confinement, and strikingly enhanced exciton size in the presence of magnetic fields. Our method provides an experimental route towards creating scalable arrays of identical single photon sources, which will constitute building blocks of strongly correlated photonic systems.