Project period: 2022-2025
This project explores how twisting atomically thin materials can reshape their optical properties. Focusing on semiconducting 2D layers such as TMDs and hBN, it investigates how twist angles influence excitons — electron–hole pairs — and their coupling to light to form polaritons. The goal is to establish how twist engineering can be used as a new knob for controlling light–matter interaction in quantum materials.
More information about the project
Two-dimensional monolayer and bilayer materials are hosting intriguing electronic and opto-electronic phenomena, with the twist angle of bilayers offering a new knob
that can change both single-particle properties as well as many-body properties of the electron system. This has already manifested in the intriguing observation of
superconductivity in twisted graphene bilayers. This project expands beyond condensed-matter physics and into the domain of optical sciences by hypothesizing
that the twist angle can also be used to manipulate opto-electronic properties. In particular, the project focuses on semiconducting 2D materials, such as hexagonal
boron nitride (hBN) or transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs), that can interestingly host excitons even at room temperature. The aim is to theoretically explore the
formation of electron-hole pairs in twisted bilayers and to investigate how the excitons manifest in polaritons when hybridized with light fields.
that can change both single-particle properties as well as many-body properties of the electron system. This has already manifested in the intriguing observation of
superconductivity in twisted graphene bilayers. This project expands beyond condensed-matter physics and into the domain of optical sciences by hypothesizing
that the twist angle can also be used to manipulate opto-electronic properties. In particular, the project focuses on semiconducting 2D materials, such as hexagonal
boron nitride (hBN) or transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs), that can interestingly host excitons even at room temperature. The aim is to theoretically explore the
formation of electron-hole pairs in twisted bilayers and to investigate how the excitons manifest in polaritons when hybridized with light fields.
- Tunable exciton polaritons in band-gap engineered hexagonal boron nitride, P Ninhos, C Tserkezis, NA Mortensen, NMR Peres, ACS Nano 18 (31), 20751-20761 (2024,
- Tunable exciton polaritons in biased bilayer graphene, VGM Duarte, P Ninhos, C Tserkezis, NA Mortensen, NMR Peres, AJ Chaves, Physical Review B 111 (7), 075411 (2025),
- Microscopic screening theory for excitons in two-dimensional materials: A bridge between effective models and ab initio descriptions, P Ninhos, AJ Uría-Álvarez, C Tserkezis, NA Mortensen, JJ Palacios, arXiv:2603.10966,
- Optical Proerties fo Two-dimensional Semiconductors: Excitonic and Polaritonic Effects, PhD Thesis, P. Ninhos,
Grant holder is N. Asger Mortensen
The project 'Polaritons In Twisted Bilayer Materials' is supported by the Independent Research Fund Denmark (Grant No. 2032-00045B)
