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Updated: Sep 2, 2026

Excitonic Hamiltonians for Calculating Optical Absorption Spectra and Optoelectronic Properties of Molecular Aggregates and Solids
Published on: May 27, 2020
Microscopic Model of Exciton Polarons in 2D Wigner Crystals
Haydn S Adlong1,2, Eugen Dizer3, Richard Schmidt3
1ETH Zürich, Institute for Quantum Electronics, Zürich, Switzerland.
Abstract:
Monolayer transition-metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) provide a platform for realizing Wigner crystals and enable their detection via exciton spectroscopy. We develop a microscopic theoretical model for excitons interacting with the localized electrons of the Wigner crystal, including their vibrational motion. In addition to the previously observed exciton-Umklapp feature, the theory reproduces and explains the higher-band attractive-polaron resonances recently reported experimentally. Our model further uncovers that the appearance of two equal-strength and parallel attractive polarons, as commonly observed in WSe_{2} and WS_{2}, is a signature of strong correlations in the electronic system. Altogether, our results demonstrate that accounting for electronic interactions is essential to reproducing and interpreting the exciton-polaron spectra of TMDs.
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