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Localized excitons in two-dimensional (2D) materials are considered as promising sources of single photons on demand. The photon indistinguishability as key figure of merit for quantum information processing is strongly influenced by the coupling of charge excitations to lattice vibrations of the surrounding semiconductor material. Here, we quantify the impact of exciton-acoustic-phonon-interaction and cavity QED effects on photon indistinguishability in a Hong-Ou-Mandel setup by solving fully quantum mechanical equations for the coupled QD-cavity-phonon system including non-Markovian effects. We find a strong reduction of indistinguishability compared to 3D systems due to increased exciton-phonon coupling efficiency. Moreover, we show that the coherence properties of photons are significantly influenced by the finite phonon lifetime in the surrounding material giving rise to pure dephasing. Only if these limitations can be overcome, localized excitons in 2D semiconductors can become a new avenue for quantum light sources.

In this study, we investigate excitonic properties of epitaxially grown WS2, which is of particular interest for various applications due to its potential for upscaling to wafer sized structures. Understanding the effect of the dielectric environment due to changing layer numbers and multi-material heterostructures on the optical properties is crucial for tailoring device properties. Monochromated electron energy loss spectroscopy in a scanning transmission electron microscope is employed to characterize the excitonic spectrum of WS2 on graphene grown by metal organic chemical vapor deposition. This technique provides the required spatial resolution at the nanometer scale in combination with high quality spectra. To complement the experimental results, theoretical investigations using density functional theory and applying the Bethe-Salpeter equations are conducted. We find that by transitioning from mono- to bi- to multilayers of WS2 the spectra show redshifts for both, the K-valley excitons at about 2.0 and 2.4 eV as well as excitonic features of higher energies. The latter features originate from so called band nesting of transitions between the Gamma- and K-point. In summary, this study provides valuable insights into the excitonic properties of WS2 in different layer configurations and environments, which are realistically needed for future device fabrication and property tuning. Finally, we can show that nanometer scale electron spectroscopy supported by careful theoretical modelling can successfully link atomic structure and optical properties, such as exciton shifts, in non-idealized complex material systems like multilayer 2D heterostructures., Comment: 8 pages, 5 figures

Compositional engineering of the optical properties of hybrid organic-inorganic lead halide perovskites is one of the cornerstones for the realization of efficient solar cells and tailored light-emitting devices. We study the effect of compositional disorder on coherent exciton dynamics in a mixed FA$_{0.9}$Cs$_{0.1}$PbI$_{2.8}$Br$_{0.2}$ perovskite crystal using photon echo spectroscopy. We reveal that the homogeneous linewidth of excitons can be as narrow as 16$\mu$eV at a temperature of 1.5K. The corresponding exciton coherence time of $T_2=83$ps is exceptionally long being attributed to the localization of excitons due to variation of composition at the scale of ten to hundreds of nanometers. From spectral and temperature dependences of the two- and three-pulse photon echo decay we conclude that for low-energy excitons, pure decoherence associated with elastic scattering on phonons is comparable with the exciton lifetime, while for excitons with higher energies, inelastic scattering to lower energy states via phonon emission dominates.