Cascaded exciton energy transfer in a monolayer semiconductor lateral heterostructure assisted by surface plasmon polariton

Atomically thin lateral heterostructures based on transition metal dichalcogenides have recently been demonstrated. In monolayer transition metal dichalcogenides, exciton energy transfer is typically limited to a short range (~1 μm), and additional losses may be incurred at the interfacial regions of a lateral heterostructure. To overcome these challenges, here we experimentally implement a planar metal-oxide-semiconductor structure by placing a WS2/MoS2 monolayer heterostructure on top of an Al2O3-capped Ag single-crystalline plate. We find that the exciton energy transfer range can be extended to tens of microns in the hybrid structure mediated by an exciton-surface plasmon polariton–exciton conversion mechanism, allowing cascaded exciton energy transfer from one transition metal dichalcogenides region supporting high-energy exciton resonance to a different transition metal dichalcogenides region in the lateral heterostructure with low-energy exciton resonance. The realized planar hybrid structure combines two-dimensional light-emitting materials with planar plasmonic waveguides and offers great potential for developing integrated photonic and plasmonic devices.