Discovery of interlayer plasmon polaron in graphene/WS$_2$ heterostructures

Abstract

Harnessing electronic excitations involving coherent coupling to bosonic modes is essential for the design and control of emergent phenomena in quantum materials [1]. In situations where charge carriers induce a lattice distortion due to the electron-phonon interaction, the conducting states get "dressed". This leads to the formation of polaronic quasiparticles that dramatically impact charge transport, surface reactivity, thermoelectric and optical properties, as observed in a variety of crystals and interfaces composed of polar materials [2-6]. Similarly, when oscillations of the charge density couple to conduction electrons the more elusive plasmon polaron emerges [7], which has been detected in electron-doped semiconductors [8-10]. However, the exploration of polaronic effects on low energy excitations is still in its infancy in two-dimensional (2D) materials. Here, we present the discovery of an interlayer plasmon polaron in heterostructures composed of graphene on top of SL WS$_2$. By using micro-focused angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (microARPES) during in situ doping of the top graphene layer, we observe a strong quasiparticle peak accompanied by several carrier density-dependent shake-off replicas around the SL WS$_2$ conduction band minimum (CBM). Our results are explained by an effective many-body model in terms of a coupling between SL WS$_2$ conduction electrons and graphene plasmon modes. It is important to take into account the presence of such interlayer collective modes, as they have profound consequences for the electronic and optical properties of heterostructures that are routinely explored in many device architectures involving 2D transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) [11-15].