Twist driven deep-ultraviolet-wavelength exciton funnel effect in bilayer boron nitride

Abstract

Realizing direct-bandgap quantum dots working within the deep-ultraviolet frequency is highly desired for electro-optical and biomedical applications while remaining challenging. In this work, we combine the first-principles many-body perturbation theory and effective Hamiltonian approximation to propose the realization of arrays of deep-ultraviolet excitonic quantum dots in twisted bilayer hexagonal boron nitride. The effective quantum confinement of excitons can reach ~400 meV within small twisting angles, which is about four times larger than those observed in twisted semiconducting transitional metal dichalcogenides. Especially because of enhanced electron-hole attraction, those excitons will accumulate via the so-call exciton funnel effect to the direct-bandgap regime, giving the possibility to better luminescence performance and manipulating coherent arrays of deep-ultraviolet quantum dots.