Observation of Rydberg moiré excitons

Abstract

Rydberg excitons, the solid-state counterparts of Rydberg atoms, have sparked considerable interest with regard to the harnessing of their quantum application potentials, but realizing their spatial confinement and manipulation poses a major challenge. Lately, the rise of two-dimensional moiré superlattices with highly tunable periodic potentials provides a possible pathway. Here, we experimentally demonstrate this capability through the spectroscopic evidence of Rydberg moiré excitons (X RM ), which are moiré-trapped Rydberg excitons in monolayer semiconductor tungsten diselenide adjacent to twisted bilayer graphene. In the strong coupling regime, the X RM manifest as multiple energy splittings, pronounced red shift, and narrowed linewidth in the reflectance spectra, highlighting their charge-transfer character wherein electron–hole separation is enforced by strongly asymmetric interlayer Coulomb interactions. Our findings establish the excitonic Rydberg states as candidates for exploitation in quantum technologies.