Nanoscale Optical Imaging of 2D Semiconductor Stacking Orders by Exciton‐Enhanced Second Harmonic Generation
Kaiyuan Yao, Shuai Zhang, Emanuil Yanev, Kathleen M. McCreary, Hsun‐Jen Chuang, Matthew R. Rosenberger, Thomas P. Darlington, Andrey Krayev, Berend T. Jonker, James Hone, D. N. Basov, P. James Schuck
Abstract
Abstract Second harmonic generation (SHG) is a nonlinear optical response arising exclusively from broken inversion symmetry in the electric‐dipole limit. Recently, SHG has attracted widespread interest as a versatile and noninvasive tool for characterization of crystal symmetry and emerging ferroic or topological orders in quantum materials. However, conventional far‐field optics is unable to probe local symmetry at the deep subwavelength scale. Here, near‐field SHG imaging of 2D semiconductors and heterostructures with the spatial resolution down to 20 nm is demonstrated using a scattering‐type nano‐optical apparatus. It is shown that near‐field SHG efficiency is greatly enhanced by excitons in atomically thin transition metal dichalcogenides. Furthermore, by correlating nonlinear and linear scattering‐type nano‐imaging, nanoscale variations of interlayer stacking order in bilayer WSe 2 are resolved, and the stacking‐tuned excitonic light–matter interactions are revealed. This work demonstrates nonlinear optical interrogation of crystal symmetry and structure–property relationships at the nanometer length scales relevant to emerging properties in quantum materials.