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Two-dimensional (2D) heterostructures integrated into nanophotonic cavities have emerged as a promising approach towards novel photonic and opto-electronic devices. However, the thickness of the 2D heterostructure has a strong influence on the resonance frequency of the nanocavity. For a single cavity, the resonance frequency shifts approximately linearly with the thickness. Here, we propose to use the inherent non-linearity of the mode coupling to render the cavity mode insensitive to the thickness of the 2D heterostructure. Based on the couple mode theory, we reveal that this goal can be achieved using either a homoatomic molecule with a filtered coupling or heteroatomic molecules. We perform numerical simulations to further demonstrate the robustness of the eigenfrequency in the proposed photonic molecules. Our results render nanophotonic structures insensitive to the thickness of 2D materials, thus owing appealing potential in energy- or detuning-sensitive applications such as cavity quantum electrodynamics.

The electron-hole exchange interaction is a fundamental mechanism that drives valley depolarization via intervalley exciton hopping in semiconductor multi-valley systems. Here, we report polarization-resolved photoluminescence spectroscopy of neutral excitons and negatively charged trions in monolayer MoSe$_2$ and WSe$_2$ under biaxial strain. We observe a marked enhancement(reduction) on the WSe$_2$ triplet trion valley polarization with compressive(tensile) strain while the trion in MoSe$_2$ is unaffected. The origin of this effect is shown to be a strain dependent tuning of the electron-hole exchange interaction. A combined analysis of the strain dependent polarization degree using ab initio calculations and rate equations shows that strain affects intervalley scattering beyond what is expected from strain dependent bandgap modulations. The results evidence how strain can be used to tune valley physics in energetically degenerate multi-valley systems.

Moiré trapped interlayer excitons (IXs) in heterobilayer transition metal dichalcogenides currently attract strong interest due to their potential for non-classical light generation, coherent spin-photon interfaces and exploring novel correlated phases of electrons. Here, we report lasing of moiré trapped IXs by integrating a pristine hBN-encapsulated MoSe$_2$/WSe$_2$ heterobilayer in a high-Q ($>10^4$) nanophotonic cavity. We control the detuning between the IX line and the cavity mode with a magnetic field and measure the dipolar coupling strength to the cavity mode to be $78 \pm 4\ \mathrm{μeV}$, fully consistent with the 82 $\mathrm{μeV}$ predicted by theory. The emission from the cavity mode shows clear threshold-like behaviour. We observe a superlinear power dependence accompanied by a narrowing of the linewidth as the distinct features of lasing. The onset and prominence of these threshold-like behaviours are significant at resonance whilst weak off-resonance. Our results show that a lasing transition can be induced in interacting moiré trapped IXs with macroscopic coherence extending over the lengthscale of the cavity mode. Such systems raise interesting perspectives for low-power switching and synaptic nanophotonic devices using 2D materials.

Integrating quantum emitters into nanocavities which simultaneously couple to the photonic and mechanical modes is critical for interfacing electron spins, photons and phonons in the cavity QED system. Here, we investigate the interaction between the charged boron vacancy $V_B^-$, ultra-high-Q ($\sim10^5$) cavity photonic modes and local phonon modes. A pronounced asymmetry is observed in the emission spectrum for cavities with Q-factor above a threshold of 10$^4$. Similar asymmetries are not observed for cavities without $V_B^-$ centers. To explain our findings, we model the system with phonon-induced light-matter coupling based on $V_B^-$ centers, and compare to the Jaynes-Cummings model for usual emitters. Our results reveal that the multipartite interplay arises during the light-matter coupling of $V_B^-$ centers, illustrating that it is phonon-induced, rather than being caused by thermal population of phonon modes. Such emitter-optomechanical interaction between different photon ($V_B^-$ emission, cavity photonic) and phonon ($V_B^-$ phonon, cavity mechanical) modes provides a novel system to interface spin defects, photons and phonons in condensed matters.

We report resonant Raman spectroscopy of neutral excitons X$^0$ and intravalley trions X$^-$ in hBN-encapsulated MoS$_2$ monolayer embedded in a nanobeam cavity. By temperature tuning the detuning between Raman modes of MoS$_2$ lattice phonons and X$^0$/X$^-$ emission peaks, we probe the mutual coupling of excitons, lattice phonons and cavity vibrational phonons. We observe an enhancement of X$^0$-induced Raman scattering and a suppression for X$^-$-induced, and explain our findings as arising from the tripartite exciton-phonon-phonon coupling. The cavity vibrational phonons provide intermediate replica states of X$^0$ for resonance conditions in the scattering of lattice phonons, thus enhancing the Raman intensity. In contrast, the tripartite coupling involving X$^-$ is found to be much weaker, an observation explained by the geometry-dependent polarity of the electron and hole deformation potentials. Our results indicate that phononic hybridization between lattice and nanomechanical modes plays a key role in the excitonic photophysics and light-matter interaction in 2D-material nanophotonic systems.

Atomically thin semiconductors can be readily integrated into a wide range of nanophotonic architectures for applications in quantum photonics and novel optoelectronic devices. We report the observation of nonlocal interactions of \textit{free} trions in pristine hBN/MoS$_2$/hBN heterostructures coupled to single mode (Q $>10^4$) quasi 0D nanocavities. The high excitonic and photonic quality of the interaction system stems from our integrated nanofabrication approach simultaneously with the hBN encapsulation and the maximized local cavity field amplitude within the MoS$_2$ monolayer. We observe a nonmonotonic temperature dependence of the cavity-trion interaction strength, consistent with the nonlocal light-matter interactions in which the extent of the center-of-mass wavefunction is comparable to the cavity mode volume in space. Our approach can be generalized to other optically active 2D materials, opening the way towards harnessing novel light-matter interaction regimes for applications in quantum photonics.