Exploring strong light-matter interactions in monocrystalline gold nanodisks coupled to tungsten disulfide

Tailoring the interaction between excitons in semiconducting materials and electromagnetic fields focused inside optical cavities is the cornerstone of many applied and fundamental researches in nanophotonics. The coupling strength between matter and light can range from the weak to the strong regime, where light and matter can no longer be treated independently but instead as hybridized states sharing both properties of light and matter. In order to reach that regime, the coherent energy exchange between the excitons and the optical field must happen faster than any dissipation processes. With the recent discovery of new low-dimensional materials such as transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDC), hosting excitons with binding-energies above 0.3 eV and exhibiting large transition dipole moments, it has been shown experimentally, in combination with plasmonic nanostructures, that it is possible to reach the strong-coupling regime at room temperature.