Localized polariton states in a photonic crystal intercalated by a transition metal dichalcogenide monolayer

Abstract

Beyond the extensively studied microcavity polaritons, which are coupled modes of semiconductor excitons and microcavity photons, nearly 2D semiconductors placed in a suitable environment can support spatially localized exciton-polariton modes. We demonstrate theoretically that two distinct types of such modes can exist in a photonic crystal with an embedded transition metal dichalcogenide (TMD) monolayer and derive an equation that determines their dispersion relations. The localized modes of two types occur in the zeroth- and first-order stop-bands of the crystal, respectively, and have substantially different properties. The latter type of the localized modes, which appear inside the light cone, can be described as a result of coupling of the TMD exciton and an optical Tamm state of the TMD-intercalated photonic crystal. We suggest an experiment for detecting these modes and simulate it numerically.