Author Correction: Local tuning of Rydberg exciton energies in nanofabricated Cu2O pillars
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Bottom-up fabrication of 2D Rydberg exciton arrays in cuprous oxide
Solid-state platforms provide exceptional opportunities for advancing on-chip quantum technologies by enhancing interaction strengths through coupling, scalability, and robustness. Cuprous oxide (Cu2O) has recently emerged as a promising medium for scalable quantum technology due to its high-lying Rydberg excitonic states, akin to those in hydrogen atoms. To harness these nonlinearities for quantum applications, the confinement dimensions must match the Rydberg blockade size, which can reach several microns in Cu2O. Using a CMOS-compatible growth technique, this study demonstrates the bottom-up fabrication of site-selective arrays of Cu2O microparticles. We observed Rydberg excitons up to the principal quantum number n = 5 within these Cu2O arrays on a quartz substrate and analyzed the spatial variation of their spectrum across the array, showing robustness and reproducibility on a large chip. These results lay the groundwork for the deterministic growth of Cu2O around photonic structures, enabling substantial light-matter interaction on integrated photonic platforms and paving the way for scalable, on-chip quantum devices.
Transient dynamics and long-range transport of 2D exciton with managed potential disorder and phonon scattering
Two-dimensional excitons, characterized by high binding energy and valley pseudospin, are key to advancing photonic and electronic devices through controlled spatiotemporal dynamics of exciton flux. However, optimizing excitonic transport and emission dynamics, considering potential disorder and phonon scattering, requires further research. This study systematically investigates the effects of hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) encapsulation on semiconductor monolayers. Time-resolved photoluminescence (TRPL) and femtosecond pump-probe techniques reveal that encapsulation reduces excitonic radiative lifetime and enhances exciton-exciton annihilation, due to increased dielectric screening, which enlarges the Bohr radius and decreases binding energy. It also manages phonon scattering and thermal fluctuations, confirming non-monotonic temperature effects on emission and diffusion. The reduced disorder by hBN leads to a lowered optimized temperature from 250 K to 200 K, concurrently resulting in a doubled enhancement of the effective exciton diffusion coefficient. These findings highlight the importance of thermal and dielectric environmental control for ultrafast 2D exciton-based devices.
Microwave-coupled optical bistability in driven and interacting Rydberg gases
Nonequilibrium dynamics are closely related to various fields of research, in which vastly different phases emerge when parameters are changed. However, it is difficult to construct nonequilibrium systems that have sufficiently tunable controllable parameters. Using microwave field coupling induced optical bistability, Rydberg gases exhibit a range of significantly different optical responses. In conjunction with electromagnetically induced transparency, the microwave coupling can create versatile nonequilibrium dynamics. In particular, the microwave coupling of two Rydberg states provides an additional handle for controlling the dynamics. And the microwave-controlled nonequilibrium phase transition has the potential to be applied in microwave field measurement. This study opens a new avenue to exploring bistable dynamics using microwave-coupled Rydberg gases, and developing quantum technological applications.
Controlling Coulomb correlations and fine structure of quasi-one-dimensional excitons by magnetic order
Many surprising properties of quantum materials result from Coulomb correlations defining electronic quasiparticles and their interaction chains. In van der Waals layered crystals, enhanced correlations have been tailored in reduced dimensions, enabling excitons with giant binding energies and emergent phases including ferroelectric, ferromagnetic and multiferroic orders. Yet, correlation design has primarily relied on structural engineering. Here we present quantitative experiment–theory proof that excitonic correlations can be switched through magnetic order. By probing internal Rydberg-like transitions of excitons in the magnetic semiconductor CrSBr, we reveal their binding energy and a dramatic anisotropy of their quasi-one-dimensional orbitals manifesting in strong fine-structure splitting. We switch the internal structure from strongly bound, monolayer-localized states to weakly bound, interlayer-delocalized states by pushing the system from antiferromagnetic to paramagnetic phases. Our analysis connects this transition to the exciton’s spin-controlled effective quantum confinement, supported by the exciton’s dynamics. In future applications, excitons or even condensates may be interfaced with spintronics; extrinsically switchable Coulomb correlations could shape phase transitions on demand.
Contractility of striated muscle tissue increases with environmental stiffness according to a power-law relationship
The interplay between contractility and mechanosensing in striated muscle is important for tissue morphogenesis, load adaptation, and disease progression, but remains poorly understood. Here, we investigate how contractile force generation in neonatal rat cardiac and C2C12 mouse skeletal muscle micro-tissues depends on environmental stiffness. Micro-tissues self-assemble and mature over one week between flexible elastic pillars with adjustable stiffness that we vary over three orders of magnitude. Contractile forces are measured from pillar deflections and are decomposed into static baseline and transient active forces in response to electrical stimulation. After 3–5 days of maturation, we find that the active, but not static, force of both cardiac and skeletal micro-tissues increases with environmental stiffness according to a strong power-law relationship, indicating a pronounced mechanoresponsiveness. Depleting the focal adhesion protein β-parvin in skeletal muscle miscro-tissues reduces absolute contractile force but does not affect mechanoresponsiveness. Our findings highlight the influence of external stiffness in striated muscle during development.
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