Nanoscale Excitonic Semiconductors for Strong Light-Matter Interactions

#semiconductor #optoelectronics #nanoelectronics #light-matter #interactions #photonic #materials

Silicon has been the dominant material for electronic computing for decades and very likely will stay dominant for the foreseeable future. However, it is well-known that Moore’s law that propelled Silicon into this dominant position is long dead. Therefore, a fervent search for (i) new semiconductors that could directly replace silicon or (ii) new architectures with novel materials/devices added onto silicon or (iii) new physics/state-variables or a combination of above has been the subject of much of the electronic materials and devices research of the past 2 decades. The above problem is further complicated by the changing paradigm of computing from arithmetic centric to data centric in the age of billions of internet-connected devices and artificial intelligence as well as the ubiquity of computing in ever more challenging environments. Therefore, there is a pressing need for complementing and supplementing Silicon to operate with greater efficiency, speed and handle greater amounts of data. This is further necessary since a completely novel and paradigm changing computing platform (e.g. all optical computing or quantum computing) remains out of reach for now.

The above is however not possible without fundamental innovation in new electronic materials and devices. Therefore, in this talk, I will try to make the case of how novel layered two-dimensional (2D) chalcogenide materials and three-dimensional (3D) nitride materials might present interesting avenues to overcome some of the limitations being faced by Silicon hardware. I will also highlight ongoing work and opportunities to extend the application of III nitride ferroelectric materials into extreme environments electronics.

Then, on the optical and photonic materials side I will first make the case for van der Waals bonded semiconductors which exhibit strong excitonic resonances and large optical dielectric constants as compared to bulk 3D semiconductors. First, I will focus on the subject of strong light-matter coupling in excitonic 2D semiconductors, namely chalcogenides of Mo and W. Visible spectrum band-gaps with strong excitonic absorption makes transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDCs) of molybdenum and tungsten as attractive candidates for investigating strong light-matter interaction formation of hybrid states. I will then extend the analogy to hybrid 2D materials and 1D carbon nanotubes.

• Date: 19 Aug 2025
• Time: 03:00 AM UTC to 04:00 AM UTC
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• Research School of Physics
• 60 Mills Rd, Acton
• Canberra, Australian Capital Territory
• Australia 2601

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