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Updated: Jan 25, 2026

Electric-field Control of Electronic States in WS2 Nanodevices by Electrolyte Gating
Published on: April 12, 2018
Electrical Control of Intersubband Transitions in Few-Layer WSe2 Multivalley Quantum Wells Probed by Electronic Raman
Philipp Wutz1, Yinong Zhang2, Felix Hofmann1
1Institute for Experimental and Applied Physics, University of Regensburg, Regensburg 93053, Germany.
Abstract:
Semiconducting quantum wells have enabled revolutionary applications in diode lasers, IR photodetectors, and optical modulators. Recently, van der Waals (vdW) quantum wells have emerged as a promising frontier, offering inherently atomically sharp interfaces and facile integration into device structures without the constraints of lattice matching. Tunability of intersubband transitions is essential for applications of quantum wells but remains unexplored in vdW structures. Here, we report valley-selective, electric-field-activated electronic Raman scattering from intersubband transitions in natural WSe2 multilayers and demonstrate electrical tunability by over 100 meV. We validate the generality of such tunability in 3 to 7 layers of WSe2 and quantify the effective dipole moments and polarizabilities that determine the quantum-confined Stark effect. These intersubband transitions are also found in artificially stacked multilayers, where they can be manipulated by twist angle. Our work lays foundations for exploiting vdW quantum wells in next-generation optoelectronic applications, including tunable photodiodes and atomically compact IR spectrometers.
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