Excitonic bound states in the continuum in van der Waals heterostructure metasurfaces

Abstract: We investigate the formation of excitonic quasi-bound states in the continuum in van der Waals heterostructures composed of two-dimensional excitonic layers and resonant dielectric metasurfaces. We begin our analysis with a simplified planar heterostructure slab model containing a vdW layer. We develop a theoretical framework based on the slab's Green function to describe the weak coupling between excitons and quasi-normal electromagnetic modes. We show that the exciton Purcell factor can be significantly suppressed when the exciton frequency matches a Fabry-P\'{e}rot mode and the vdW layer is positioned at the nodes of the mode's electric field. In this case, the suppression reaches its fundamental limit, which is defined exclusively by slab's permittivity. In heterostructure metasurfaces, a more substantial suppression can be achieved due to multiple interferences between Fabry-P\'{e}rot modes and guided-mode resonances with high quality factors. Numerical simulations confirm that the exciton radiative lifetime can be extended by over two orders of magnitude, demonstrating the formation of excitonic quasi-BICs and their potential for advancing quantum optics and information processing.