December 2021

Researchers from the University of Oldenburg, managed to create a three-atoms-thick structure that emits laser-like light, at room temperature, for the first time. The researchers believe that coherent light emission from ultathin crystals could enable valleytronics devices in the future.

To create the light, the researchers used exciton-polaritons particles, formed from the strong interaction between confined photons and electrons. The structure itself is made from a single-layer of a WSe₂ crystal, that sits on top of a hBN 2D layer. The idea is that the exciton-polaritons are created in a trap in the WSe₂ and then captured and reflected by two distributed Bragg reflectors (DBRs) that act as mirrors.