Direct Measurement of Biexcitons in Monolayer WS2

The optical properties of atomically thin transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDCs) are dominated by Coulomb bound quasi-particles, such as excitons, trions, and biexcitons. Due to the number and density of possible states, attributing different spectral peaks to the specific origin can be difficult. In particular, there has been much conjecture around the presence, binding energy and/or nature of biexcitons in these materials. In this work, we remove any ambiguity in identifying and separating the optically excited biexciton in monolayer WS2 using two-quantum multidimensional coherent spectroscopy (2Q-MDCS), a technique that directly and selectively probes doubly-excited states, such as biexcitons. The energy difference between the unbound two-exciton state and the biexciton is the fundamental definition of biexciton binding energy and is measured to be 26 ± 2 meV. Furthermore, resolving the biexciton peaks in 2Q-MDCS allows us to identify that the biexciton observed here is composed of two bright excitons in opposite valleys.

Line-shape broadening of an autoionizing state in helium at high XUV intensity

We study the interaction of intense extreme ultraviolet (XUV) light with the 2s2p doubly excited state in helium. In addition to previously understood energy-level and phase shifts, high XUV intensities may lead to other absorption line shape distortions. Here, we report on experimental transient-absorption spectroscopy results on the 2s2p line width modification in helium in intense stochastic XUV fields. A few-level model simulation is realized to investigate the origins of this effect. We find that the line shape broadening is connected to the strong coupling of the ground state to the 2s2p doubly excited state which is embedded in the ionization continuum. As the broadening takes place for intensities lower than for other strong-coupling processes, e.g. observing asymmetry changes of the absorption profile, this signature can be identified already in an intermediate intensity regime. These findings are in general relevant for resonant inner shell transitions in nonlinear experiments with XUV and x-ray photon energies at high intensity.

Non-reciprocal population dynamics in a quantum trimer

We study a quantum trimer of coupled two-level systems beyond the single-excitation sector, where the coherent coupling constants are ornamented by a complex phase. Accounting for losses and gain in an open quantum systems approach, we show how the mean populations of the states in the system crucially depend on the accumulated phase in the trimer. Namely, for non-trivial accumulated phases, the population dynamics and the steady states display remarkable non-reciprocal behaviour in both the singly and doubly excited manifolds. Furthermore, while the directionality of the resultant chiral current is primarily determined by the accumulated phase in the loop, the sign of the flow may also change depending on the coupling strength and the amount of gain in the system. This directionality paves the way for experimental studies of chiral currents at the nanoscale, where the phases of the complex hopping parameters are modulated by magnetic or synthetic magnetic fields.

Doubly excited states in a chiral waveguide-QED system: description and properties

In modern quantum optics chiral waveguide quantum-electrodynamical (wQED) systems are attracting a lot of attention from the perspective of fundamental science, and possible interesting applications. In our work we theoretically analyze the eigenstates in a two-excitation domain of an ensemble of two-level atoms that are periodically spaced, and asymmetrically coupled to a guided mode. We found that in a regime when all atoms emit photons in-phase, most eigenstates in such a system can be well-approximated and described through the eigenstates from a single excitation domain, while the rest present a superposition of bound states with two strongly attracting excitations, and states, for which the excitations strongly repel from each other occupying the opposite edges of the system.

Energy calculations of the (2P2 1D); (3D2 1G) and (4F2 1I) doubly excited states of helium isoelectronic sequence (z ≤ 20) via the modified atomic orbital theory

We report in this paper the total energies of the 2p2 1D, 3d2 1G, 4f2 1I doubly excited states of Helium isoelectronic sequence with nuclear charge Z ≤ 20. Calculations are performed using the Modified Atomic Orbital Theory (MAOT) [1;2] in the framework of a variational procedure. The purpose of this study required a mathematical development of the Hamiltonian applied to Slater-type wave function [3] combining with Hylleraas-type wave function [4]. The study leads to analytical expressions which are carried out under special MAXIMA computational program. This proposed MAOT variational procedure, leads to accurate results in good agreement as well as with available other theoretical results than experimental data. In the present work, a new correlated wave function is presented to express analytically the total energies for each 2p2 1D, 3d2 1G, 4f 2 1I Doubly Excited States (DES) in the He-like systems. The present accurate data may be a useful guideline for future experimental and theoretical studies in the (nl2 ) systems.