Electrical Modulation of Exciton Complexes in Light-Emitting Tunnel Transistors of a van der Waals Heterostructure

Transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) and their van der Waals heterostructures provide a unique platform for optoelectronic applications. The strong Coulomb interaction in TMDs creates various tightly bound electron–hole combinations, resulting in various exciton complexes. Despite the great potential of exciton complexes in optoelectronics, most related studies have been performed using optical excitation methods at low temperatures. Here, we demonstrate the electrical modulation of exciton complexes in light-emitting tunnel transistors (LETTs) of van der Waals heterostructures with tunnel junctions of monolayer WSe 2 sandwiched by tunnel barriers of hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) and graphene electrodes. Electrons and holes were electrically driven into the monolayer WSe 2 by tunneling through hBN, leading to strong electroluminescence (EL) via recombination. To electrically control t…