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Interlayer exciton flux amplification driven by strong exciton confinement

Nature Materials (2026)Cite this article

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Abstract

The complex but extraordinary transport properties of interlayer excitons (IXs) in van der Waals heterostructures drive the development of advanced excitonic circuits, yet their transport mechanisms at the nanoscale remain largely unknown. Here we demonstrate an anomalous IX transport regime arising from nanoscale bandgap modifications in van der Waals heterostructures. To manipulate and simultaneously probe such IX behaviour, we use a controllable electro-plasmonic nanocavity with subnanometre positional precision. The nanoscale bandgap gradient confines IXs to a narrow potential well, creating a highly localized density profile whose outward diffusion current exceeds the electric-field-induced drift. We quantify an ~8,300% amplification of the diffusion current compared with that achieved using conventional microscale gating. Moreover, this anomalous regime is not governed by the total IX population, but by the nanoscale IX density gradient. Our work reveals a decoupling of IX transport efficiency from density constraints, establishing nanocavity confinement for reconfigurable exciton flux in van der Waals devices.

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Fig. 1: Dipolar interactions and quantum-confined Stark effect of IXs in the electro-plasmonic nanocavity.
Fig. 2: Comparative analysis of exciton dynamics under nanoscale versus microscale bandgap modifications.
Fig. 3: Electrically tuned IX density in heterobilayers with different coupling strengths.
Fig. 4: Electrically modulated IX emission intensity and energy for different coupling strengths.

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Data availability

The data that support the plots in this study and other findings of this study are available within this Article and its Supplementary Information. All other data used in this study are available from the corresponding author upon request.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) grants (RS-2025-02217103, RS-2025-00559639, RS-2025-02317602 and RS-2025-17492968), the Samsung Science and Technology Foundation (SSTF-BA2102-05) and the Ministry of Science and ICT (MSIT) under the Information Technology Research Center (ITRC) support program (IITP-2022-RS-2022-00164799). A.N.A., I.E.K. and V.K. acknowledge support by Priority 2030 Federal Academic Leadership Program for sample fabrication and Russian Science Foundation project 25-42-01019 for optical measurements.

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Author notes

  1. These authors contributed equally: Hyeongwoo Lee, Taeyoung Moon.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physics, Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH), Pohang, Republic of Korea

    Hyeongwoo Lee, Taeyoung Moon, Huitae Joo, Sujeong Kim & Kyoung-Duck Park

  2. School of Physics and Engineering, ITMO University, Saint Petersburg, Russia

    Artem N. Abramov, Ivan E. Kalantaevskii & Vasily Kravtsov

  3. Department of Semiconductor Engineering, Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH), Pohang, Republic of Korea

    Kyoung-Duck Park

  4. Institute for Convergence Research and Education in Advanced Technology, Yonsei University, Seoul, Republic of Korea

    Kyoung-Duck Park

  5. Center for Multidimensional Carbon Materials (CMCM), Institute for Basic Science (IBS), Ulsan, Republic of Korea

    Kyoung-Duck Park

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  1. Hyeongwoo Lee
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Contributions

H.L., T.M. and K.-D.P. conceived the experiments. H.L., T.M. and S.K. performed the experiments and obtained the experimental data. H.L. and T.M. performed the theoretical modelling. H.L., T.M. and H.J. performed the numerical simulations. A.N.A., I.E.K. and V.K. designed and fabricated the vdW heterostructures. H.L., T.M., V.K. and K.-D.P. analysed the data and all authors discussed the results. H.L., T.M., V.K. and K.-D.P. wrote the manuscript with contributions from all authors. K.-D.P. supervised the project.

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Correspondence to Kyoung-Duck Park.

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Lee, H., Moon, T., Abramov, A.N. et al. Interlayer exciton flux amplification driven by strong exciton confinement. Nat. Mater. (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41563-026-02569-8

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