2D Materials – Physics of
van der Waals [hetero]structures

Electron-phonon coupling in 2D van-der-Waals [hetero]structures

Principal investigator

Janina Maultzsch, Department of Physics, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg [webpage]

Abstract

The goal of the proposed project is to determine the electron/exciton-phonon coupling in two-dimensional (2D) van-der-Waals (vdW) stacks from transition-metal dichalcogenides (TMDCs). Phonons in 2D materials are extremely sensitive to the interlayer vdW interaction. Therefore, their investigation is ideally suited to elucidate the specific properties of vdW homo- and heterostructures, such as the dependence of the electronic interlayer coupling on the twist angle, symmetry, and stacking order. Understanding the electron-phonon coupling is furthermore essential for obtaining a comprehensive picture of carrier dynamics and exciton relaxation.

Our experimental methods include resonant Raman scattering, low-temperature photoluminescence (PL) as well as spatial mapping of Raman and PL spectra. The work will be supported by first-principles calculations of electron-phonon coupling matrix elements.