Van der Waals Heterostructures Controlled by Electromagnetic Cavity Resonators (CaVdW)

Professor Zhang Shuang   (Co-Investigator)

48

2022-05-01

2985817

Van der Waals Heterostructures Controlled by Electromagnetic Cavity Resonators (CaVdW)

2D van der Waals materials, Cavity systems, Electromagnetic nano-resonators, van der Waals heterostructures

Physics

Physical Sciences (P)

A-HKU705/21

ANR / RGC Joint Research Scheme

2021

On-going

The control of the electronic properties of solids is one of the main challenges of condensed matter physics. In recent years, 2D materials (such as graphene and transition metal dichalcogenide monolayers) and their van der Waals heterostructures have sparked a tremendous interest for their tunable physical behavior associated with the electron’s quantum degrees of freedom including spin, valley and layer pseudospin. New opportunities to control their properties are emerging thanks to enhanced light-matter coupling enabled by the novel designs of optical microcavities, and terahertz electromagnetic resonators such as split-ring resonators (SRRs) with deep-subwavelength modal confinement and giant vacuum fields. The microcavities and nanoplasmonic resonators can modify not only the optical response of 2D materials, but also their transport properties even in the absence of illumination. Indeed, the ultrastrong light-matter coupling dresses the electrons and the cavity modes and affect the behavior of charge conduction. Effective long-range electron-electron interactions can be mediated by the exchange of virtual cavity photons. The injection of real photons into the cavities/resonators has the potential to strongly manipulate the electronic response of the van der Waals materials. The general goal of this project is to study novel electronic systems in van der Waals layered structures and their control by the coupling to deep-subwavelength electromagnetic resonators and microcavities without or with illumination. We aim to explore theoretically and experimentally: (i) cavity-controlled electronic transport in van der Waals heterostructures without illumination; (ii) cavity-controlled superconductivity in van der Waals materials via the exchange of virtual cavity photons; (iii) novel optoelectronic functionalities in van der Waals materials in presence of subwavelength confinement of the photonic modes; (iv) fundamental properties of Moiré superlattices in lattice mismatched van der Waals structures controlled by cavity resonators. This French-Hong Kong joint project would create a remarkable synergy by enhancing complementary expertise of the four partner groups (two theoretical teams and two experimental ones).