Spatial Control of Photoluminescence at Room Temperature by Ferroelectric Domains in Monolayer WS₂/PZT Hybrid Structures

Single-monolayer transition metal dichalcogenides exhibit exceptionally strong photoluminescence (PL), dominated by a combination of distinct neutral and charged exciton contributions. We show here that the surface charge associated with ferroelectric domains patterned into a lead zirconium titanate film with an atomic force microscope laterally controls the spatial distribution of neutral and charged exciton populations in an adjacent WS₂ monolayer. This is manifested by the intensity and spectral composition of the PL measured in air at room temperature from the areas of WS₂ over a ferroelectric domain with a polarization dipole pointed either out of the surface plane or into the surface plane. This approach enables spatial modulation of PL intensity and trion/neutral exciton populations and fabrication of lateral quantum dot arrays in any geometry, with potential applications in nonvolatile optically addressable memory or optical quantum computation.