A cryogenic apparatus for coupling two-dimensional materials to a confocal multimode optical cavity
Abstract
Two-dimensional van der Waals materials exhibit a variety of correlated electron phases, and optical driving offers a promising route toward manipulating them. For example, cavity-enhanced, continuous-wave (CW) Raman excitation has been suggested as a way to coherently and superradiantly populate phonons or charge density waves via material excitons. A steady-state phonon population may be sustained with sufficiently strong electron-phonon coupling to drive novel collective response. We describe an apparatus built to meet the requirements of such an experimental program: Namely, an ultrahigh-vacuum system housing a length-tunable confocal Fabry-Pérot cavity with an intracavity sample, both cryogenically cooled and stabilized against vibrations. A four-axis nanopositioner aligns the sample and supports electrical leads for sample carrier density modulation and transport measurements. Transmission through the multimode cavity enables in situ sample imaging for alignment; the sample is a transition metal dichalcogenide in this work. Operating near the confocal geometry concentrates the optical field into a localized supermode that substantially enhances light-matter coupling. This enhancement is preserved despite the millimeter-scale cavity length, which provides room for sample alignment and exchange.
Versions
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BibTeX
@misc{hiller2026cryogenic,
title = {{A cryogenic apparatus for coupling two-dimensional materials to a confocal multimode optical cavity}},
author = {Han S. Hiller and Pranav Parakh and Samuel H. Aronson and Kenji Maeda and Di Lao and Julian Stewart and Zengde She and Jierong Wang and Xiaodong Xu and Tony Heinz and Benjamin L. Lev},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = may,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2605.28815},
eprint = {2605.28815},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2605.28815},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - A cryogenic apparatus for coupling two-dimensional materials to a confocal multimode optical cavity
AU - Han S. Hiller
AU - Pranav Parakh
AU - Samuel H. Aronson
AU - Kenji Maeda
AU - Di Lao
AU - Julian Stewart
AU - Zengde She
AU - Jierong Wang
AU - Xiaodong Xu
AU - Tony Heinz
AU - Benjamin L. Lev
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/05/27
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2605.28815
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2605.28815
AB - Two-dimensional van der Waals materials exhibit a variety of correlated electron phases, and optical driving offers a promising route toward manipulating them. For example, cavity-enhanced, continuous-wave (CW) Raman excitation has been suggested as a way to coherently and superradiantly populate phonons or charge density waves via material excitons. A steady-state phonon population may be sustained with sufficiently strong electron-phonon coupling to drive novel collective response. We describe an apparatus built to meet the requirements of such an experimental program: Namely, an ultrahigh-vacuum system housing a length-tunable confocal Fabry-Pérot cavity with an intracavity sample, both cryogenically cooled and stabilized against vibrations. A four-axis nanopositioner aligns the sample and supports electrical leads for sample carrier density modulation and transport measurements. Transmission through the multimode cavity enables in situ sample imaging for alignment; the sample is a transition metal dichalcogenide in this work. Operating near the confocal geometry concentrates the optical field into a localized supermode that substantially enhances light-matter coupling. This enhancement is preserved despite the millimeter-scale cavity length, which provides room for sample alignment and exchange.
ER -