Introductory Chapter: The Testimony of Condensed Matter Physics - A Viewpoint on the Achievements and Their Applications

*Jagannathan Thirumalai*

### **1. A succinct testimony of advances in condensed matter physics**

One of the important topics in the protuberant area of physics is condensed matter physics and it broadly encompasses the microscopic and macroscopic physical properties of materials. In condensed matter physics, the basic laws of general physics include quantum physics laws, electromagnetism, and statistical mechanics. There is a wide variety in the branch of condensed matter physics such as crystallography, metallurgy, elasticity, and magnetism. Again, this condensed matter physics is also known as solid state physics. Thus, basically, condensed matter physics deals with the solid state of substances. The study of condensed matter physics deals with the substances in their obstinate material or solid state by means of crystallography, quantum mechanics, electromagnetism, semiconductors, and metallurgy and looks after the theoretical concepts of materials science and so on. Further, the exploration comprises both crystalline and non-crystalline solids in which the position of atoms is in the form of ordered three-dimensional lattice, such as diamond and sodium chloride, and on the non-crystalline (amorphous) materials in which the position of atoms is more irregular, like in glass, respectively. Studies on condensed matter physics show significant properties in solid materials especially in the atomic scale. The structure and properties of materials in solids are a general subject matter of scientific community for epochs; however, a distinct area moving in the designation of solid state physics and did not materialized in anticipation of the 1940s. One of the largest branches of condensed matter physics is solid state physics. The industrial and solid state physicists developed that and only through the research on solid state materials, the scientific applications and innovations are made conceivable [1–5]. Gargantuan group of people of solid state physicists also transpired in Europe after World War II, more specifically in Germany, England, and the Soviet Union [1–5]. In the Europe and the United States, solid state condensed matter turns out to be a protuberant field based on its systematic explorations into semiconductors, dielectrics, magnetic materials, superconductivity, electron and nuclear magnetic resonance, and its relevant occurrences. However, in the period of Cold War, major researches focused on solid state physics were not limited to only solids, which led some physicists in the 1970s and 1980s to found the field of solid state condensed matter physics, which systematized the universal method used to scrutinize solids, liquids, plasmas, and


additional complex matter [1–5]. Thus, solid state physics forms a theoretical basis of materials science. The main theme of solid state condensed matter physics is the exertion to interpret the well-established microscopic interactions, in many-body systems, into higher-level descriptions containing a smaller number of degrees of freedom. In the recent decades, the sophisticated nature of these protuberant fields has shown interesting properties and concomitant phenomena that frequently insinuate into a bonanza of fundamental physics. Though the viewpoint is mutable persistently with innovative discoveries, the elementary defies in condensed matter physics are to forecast and perceive novel phenomena and its materials properties are frequently assertive at the frontlines of quantum mechanics [2]. Today, condensed matter experiments are mainly deliberated on the nature and structure of condensed state of compact materials where relations between adjacent electrons, molecules, and atoms regulate the solid properties with crystal systems and so on. Also, in physics, condensed matter physics has got a unique niche. Progresses in this field of solid state condensed matter are ever so often important for scientific achievements and for enlightening our ultimate understanding about the nature of materials. A strong revolution instigated its rapid growth in condensed matter physics with strong investigation in physics of scattering, photonics, advanced

**Period Happenings/achievements/folks Nobel laureates Ref.**

T, S., L. 1998 1996 (Chemistry) Müller, Bednorz 1987 Lederman, Schwartz & Steinberger, 1988 Fert, Grünberg 2007 K., C.,. W. 2001

Geim, Novoselov

Fert, Grünberg 2007 Yoichiro Nambu,

Boyle, Smith, 2009 Geim, Novoselov,

Haroche, Wineland,

Englert, Higgs, 2013 Akasaki, Amano, Nakamura, 2014 Kajita, McDonald,

Haldane, Kosterlitz,

Thorne, Barish, 2017 Ashkin, 2018 Mourou, Strickland,

2010

2008

2010

2012

2015

2016

2018 Peebles, 2019 Mayor, Queloz, 2019

Fullerenes C60 (Curl, Kroto, Smalley)

Discovery of the muon neutrino Giant magnetoresistance Carbon nanotubes (Iijima)

Single graphene sheets discovered

symmetry in subatomic physics

Two-dimensional material graphene

observation of gravitational waves

application to biological systems

Cornell, Wieman)

*DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.92061*

sensor

systems

particles

phases of matter

short optical pulses

*Squat historical achievements of condensed matter physics.*

*\*Courtesy: 1 Ref. [1]. 2 Ref. [3]. 3 Ref. [4]. 4 Ref. [5].*

**Table 1.**

**3**

Discovery of high-temperature superconductivity

*Introductory Chapter: The Testimony of Condensed Matter Physics - A Viewpoint…*

Experimental Bose-Einstein condensation (Ketterle,

Invention of an imaging semiconductor circuit-the CCD

Discovery-understanding the origin of mass of subatomic

Theoretical discoveries of topological phase transitions and

Decisive contributions to the LIGO detector and the

Invention-laser physics: optical tweezers and their

Theoretical discoveries in physical cosmology Discovery of an exoplanet orbiting a solar-type star

Invention-laser physics: generating high-intensity, ultra-

Measuring and manipulation of individual quantum

Invention of efficient blue light-emitting diode Discovery of neutrino (have mass) oscillations

Discovery of giant magnetoresistance (GMR) Discovery of the mechanism of spontaneous broken *Introductory Chapter: The Testimony of Condensed Matter Physics - A Viewpoint… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.92061*


*\*Courtesy: 1 Ref. [1].*

**Period Happenings/achievements/folks Nobel laureates Ref.**

*Advances in Condensed-Matter and Materials Physics - Rudimentary Research to Topical …*

[1–4]


Stone Age Bronze Age Iron Age

technique

compressor

empirical laws

battery

1900 1911 1912 1913 1905 1907–1913 1920s 1925–1928 1926–1928 1928–1933 1947

**2**

conductivity) Hall effect

Raman scattering

superconductors

Invention of the transistor

Theory of liquid crystals The renormalization group

Laughlin)

The integer quantum hall effect

Dirac)

Demokritos: idea that an "atom" exists

engine to pump water out of mines

Humphry Davy invents the arc lamp Classification of crystal symmetries (Brillouin) Edmond Becquerel invents a method for the photovoltaic

early form of capacitor

Aristotle: all metals are a mixture of sulfur and mercury Revival of the idea of an atom by Newton and others Thomas Newcomen builds the first commercial steam

Musschenbroek and Kleist developed the Leyden jar, an

Alois Senefelder invents the lithography printing

George Medhurst invents the first motorized air

Physics is considered to be "solved" by classical mechanics, electromagnetism, and thermodynamics. Metallurgy becomes important and is described by

effect, effectively producing the first solar cell Gaston Planté invents the first rechargeable (lead acid)

Wiedemann-Franz Law (for thermal and electrical

Drude (and Lorentz): classical electron gas in metals Onnes (and Holst) discover superconductivity in mercury Van Laue discovers diffraction of X-rays by crystals W.H. & W.L. Bragg use X-rays to analyze crystals Fundamentals of photoemission (Einstein) Specific heat of solids (Einstein, Debye, and Born)

Electron diffraction (Davisson, Thomson)

Thomson discovered the electron using a cathode ray tube

Onnes 1913 Van Laue 1914 H&L. Bragg 1915 Einstein 1921 Raman 1930 D., T. 1937 Anderson, Mott, Van Vleck 1977 Alvén, Néel 1970 S., B., B. 1956

Ginzburg, Leggett, Abrikosov, 2003 Landau 1962 B.,S., 1994 W. Shockley, J. Bardeen, and W. Brattain B.,C.,S. 1972 Esaki, Giaever, Josephson 1973 Anderson, Mott, Van Vleck 1977 1998 (Chemistry) de Gennes 1991 Wilson 1982 L.,O.,R. 1996 von Klitzing 1985

Quantum mechanics (Schrödinger, Heisenberg, Pauli, and

Sommerfeld, Pauli: the electron gas with Dirac statistics The quantum theory of an electron in a solid. Band structure (Bloch, Peierls, Brillouin, Van Vleck) Magnetism (Pauli, Landau, Heisenberg, Bethe) Transistor effect (Shockley, Bardeen, Brattain)

Development of quantum field theory (Feynman, etc.) Ginzburg-Landau: phenomenological theory of

Theory of interacting electrons in solids (Landau, Migdal) Neutron scattering and diffraction (Brockhouse, Shull)

Bardeen, Cooper, Schriefer: theory of superconductivity Josephson effect of electron tunneling in superconductors The understanding of the resistance minimum in metals:

the Kondo effect (Kondo, Anderson 1969) Density functional theory (Kohn, Pople)

Superfluid He3 (Lee, Osheroff, Richardson)

The fractional quantum hall effect (Tsui, Störmer,

*2 Ref. [3].*

*3 Ref. [4]. 4 Ref. [5].*

### **Table 1.**

*Squat historical achievements of condensed matter physics.*

additional complex matter [1–5]. Thus, solid state physics forms a theoretical basis of materials science. The main theme of solid state condensed matter physics is the exertion to interpret the well-established microscopic interactions, in many-body systems, into higher-level descriptions containing a smaller number of degrees of freedom. In the recent decades, the sophisticated nature of these protuberant fields has shown interesting properties and concomitant phenomena that frequently insinuate into a bonanza of fundamental physics. Though the viewpoint is mutable persistently with innovative discoveries, the elementary defies in condensed matter physics are to forecast and perceive novel phenomena and its materials properties are frequently assertive at the frontlines of quantum mechanics [2]. Today, condensed matter experiments are mainly deliberated on the nature and structure of condensed state of compact materials where relations between adjacent electrons, molecules, and atoms regulate the solid properties with crystal systems and so on. Also, in physics, condensed matter physics has got a unique niche. Progresses in this field of solid state condensed matter are ever so often important for scientific achievements and for enlightening our ultimate understanding about the nature of materials. A strong revolution instigated its rapid growth in condensed matter physics with strong investigation in physics of scattering, photonics, advanced

### *Advances in Condensed-Matter and Materials Physics - Rudimentary Research to Topical …*

materials physics, surface analysis, low-temperature physics, low-dimensional electronic systems, structure of biological chemistry, and high-temperature superconductors. However, most discoveries and inventions concern the goings-on of short historical achievements of condensed matter physics, as abridged in **Table 1**, with some additional literatures in condensed matter physics, on the basis of historical accomplishments in different eras.

**Field Studies/application Experiments (examples)**

*Introductory Chapter: The Testimony of Condensed Matter Physics - A Viewpoint…*

• *Non-Fermi liquid,* also known as *"strange metal,"* also called the *Luttinger liquid* [15]

• Superhydrophilic lithium exchanged vermiculite as a thin coating layer on microfiltration membranes to resist fouling [16]

• Mechanisms involve selfpropulsion, microswimmers, Marangoni stress in the biological

• Nonlinear Hamiltonian equations govern the water-wave system and describe the premises of the weak wave turbulence

• Emergent topological quasiparticle

• Crystalline solids, and ferromagnets

• Topological structure in manyelectron systems and may have potential applications in future electronic devices [21]

• Quantum criticality, quantum spin

He-B (Type-II SC)

systems [17]

theory [18]

[20]

liquid [22]

He (He II) & <sup>3</sup>

• Three manifestations: (a) the Stefan-Boltzmann law, (b) the heat transfer between two bodies, (c)

• Switching magnetic moments by spin-polarized currents, and photonic fields [25]

• Magnetoelectric effect, spiral magnetic order [26]

Casimir forces [24]

• <sup>4</sup>

[23]

excitation [19]

• Non-Fermi liquids are unconventional metals whose physical properties deviate qualitatively from those of noninteracting fermions due to strong quantum fluctuations near

Fermi surfaces

• *Swimming droplets* are artificial microswimmers based on liquid droplets that show self-propelled motion when immersed in a second

• *Wave turbulence on water surface*gravity waves on the surface of an

• *Fracton* phases constitute a new class of quantum state of matter

infinitely deep fluid

• Quantum spin Hall effect It is a state of matter proposed to exist in special, two-dimensional, semiconductors that have a quantized spin-Hall conductance and a vanishing

charge-Hall conductance

field

systems

forces

electronics

magnetic dipoles

absolute zero)

• *Quantum anomalous Hall effect* Quantized Hall effect realized in a system without an external magnetic

• *Quantum Monte Carlo simulations* encompass a large family of computational methods whose common aim is the study of complex quantum

• *Quantum turbulence-*the chaotic motion of a fluid at high flow rates (cooled to temperatures close to

• *Quantum-thermal fluctuations* of electromagnetic waves are the cornerstone of quantum statistics and inherent to phenomena such as thermal radiation and van der Waals

• Spintronics encompasses the ever-evolving field of magnetic

• Multiferroics are materials that combine coupled electric and

Water science • Fouling resistant *oil–water* separation

*DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.92061*

liquid

Quantum materials & spintronics

Magnetoelectric (ME)

**5**

### **2. Topical advancements in recent advancements in the field of condensed matter and materials physics**

The recent advancements in the field of condensed matter and aterials physics through fabrication of electronic devices such as computers and mobiles, opto-electronic devices such as fiber optics and lasers with different types, magnetic devices such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and vibrating magneto devices, silicon-based logic and memory bits. The entire perception of contemporary technology is established upon the ideologies of condensed matter and materials physics. Routine things like the building that is made up of electrical wiring, the windowpane, and a refrigerator door equipped with the magnet, are all reliant on the principles resultant from condensed matter and materials physics. Further,


*Introductory Chapter: The Testimony of Condensed Matter Physics - A Viewpoint… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.92061*


materials physics, surface analysis, low-temperature physics, low-dimensional electronic systems, structure of biological chemistry, and high-temperature superconductors. However, most discoveries and inventions concern the goings-on of short historical achievements of condensed matter physics, as abridged in **Table 1**, with some additional literatures in condensed matter physics, on the basis of historical

*Advances in Condensed-Matter and Materials Physics - Rudimentary Research to Topical …*

**2. Topical advancements in recent advancements in the field of**

The recent advancements in the field of condensed matter and aterials physics through fabrication of electronic devices such as computers and mobiles, opto-electronic devices such as fiber optics and lasers with different types, magnetic devices such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and vibrating magneto devices, silicon-based logic and memory bits. The entire perception of contemporary technology is established upon the ideologies of condensed matter and materials physics. Routine things like the building that is made up of electrical wiring, the windowpane, and a refrigerator door equipped with the magnet, are all reliant on the principles resultant from condensed matter and materials physics. Further,

**Field Studies/application Experiments (examples)** Superconductors • *Iron pnictide* superconductor family • F-doped LaOFeAs [6] • *Majorana fermions* (particles that are

• Gauge bosons and Higgs bosons [7]

• *Superconducting qubits* are leading candidates in the reach of modern

• Ultra cold quantum gases [11]

• Bose condensation is central to our understanding of quantum phases

• Topological defects [12]

of matter [13]

• Sr3Ru2O7 [14]

• Plutonium, owing to strong electron-electron interactions [8]

supercomputers [9]

• Weyl metal [10]

their own antiparticle)

systems

Topological materials

**4**

• *Plutonium*-based heavy-fermion

• *Superconducting qubits* allow arbitrary rotations in the Bloch sphere with pulsed microwave signals, thus implementing arbitrary

• First example of a conducting material with a nontrivial electronic

• Isolated quantum many-body systems (statistical and quantum

• Symmetry-protected topological

• Anyon condensation is the inverse process of passing from C/G to C

Correlated electron fluids can exhibit a startling array of complex phases, among which one of the more surprising is the electron nematic, a translationally invariant metallic phase with a spontaneously generated spatial

single qubit gates

structure topology

physics)

Spin liquids • Nematic Fermi fluids

anisotropy

(SPT) phases

accomplishments in different eras.

**condensed matter and materials physics**

technological scale from micro-/nano-electronics to structure of materials to the field of medicine. The new era retains the possibilities of ground-breaking advancements in condensed matter physics that will subsidize the national secu-

*Introductory Chapter: The Testimony of Condensed Matter Physics - A Viewpoint…*

All authors contributed toward data analysis, drafting, and revising the paper

The authors apologize for inadvertent omission of any pertinent references.

The authors declare that there is no conflict of interests regarding the publica-

Department of Physics, School of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, Srinivasa

© 2020 The Author(s). Licensee IntechOpen. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium,

Ramanujan Centre, SASTRA Deemed University, Tamil Nadu, India

\*Address all correspondence to: thirumalaijg@gmail.com;

rity, economic growth, and the excellence of life.

*DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.92061*

and agree to be accountable for all aspects of the work.

**Acknowledgements**

**Conflict of interest**

**Notes/thanks/other declarations**

tion of this paper.

**Author details**

**7**

Jagannathan Thirumalai

thirumalai@src.sastra.edu

provided the original work is properly cited.

Nil.


#### **Table 2.**

*List of recent advancements in the field of condensed matter physics and materials physics.*

**Table 2** shows the list of recent advancements in the field of condensed matter and materials physics.

### **3. Conclusion**

In summary, condensed matter physics is living in the form of several technical and high-tech challenges in our everyday life. The field of condensed matter and materials physics finds major developments and brings out the rudimentary comprehending toward the concepts, phenomena, and materials that facilitate scientific improvements and leads to entering into a new-fangled epoch, motivated by new competences in the research related to neutron, cyclotron, and synchrotron, probing and imagining in the atomic scale, nano/micro-fabrication, and supercomputing, etc. These competencies offer prospects to scrutinize the nature of materials at complex levels with degrees of microscopic control that are exceptional. The modern era providing assurances to revolutionize the systematic technological advancements in preparing materials which leads in developing the knowledge elsewhere and through the physics of impeccable coordination the tangible solid materials that develop day-to-day environment. Understanding the basic concepts and techniques in the opto-electronic process provides information about the assemblies of multifaceted atoms and multicomponent materials and phenomena of non-equilibrium, and biological ideologies will stimulate improvements in

*Introductory Chapter: The Testimony of Condensed Matter Physics - A Viewpoint… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.92061*

technological scale from micro-/nano-electronics to structure of materials to the field of medicine. The new era retains the possibilities of ground-breaking advancements in condensed matter physics that will subsidize the national security, economic growth, and the excellence of life.

## **Acknowledgements**

All authors contributed toward data analysis, drafting, and revising the paper and agree to be accountable for all aspects of the work.

The authors apologize for inadvertent omission of any pertinent references.

### **Conflict of interest**

The authors declare that there is no conflict of interests regarding the publication of this paper.

### **Notes/thanks/other declarations**

Nil.

**Table 2** shows the list of recent advancements in the field of condensed matter

**Field Studies/application Experiments (examples)**

*Advances in Condensed-Matter and Materials Physics - Rudimentary Research to Topical …*

• Key experiments in the metallic, band-insulating, superfluid, and Mott-insulating regimes [27]

• This theorem ranges from highenergy, particle physics to condensed matter and atomic

• Cardiac arrhythmias, excitable media, spiral & scroll waves, turbulence, nonlinear dynamics

• Three-dimensional morphological subunits in a protein shell of a virus

• Insect flight-physics of behavior (fly must sense its orientation in order to balance in air) [31]

• At the interface between physics and biology, the underlying molecular mechanism of spatiotemporal formation remains

owing defies [32]

physics [28]

[29]

• The *Fermi-Hubbard model* is a key concept in condensed matter physics and provides crucial insights into electronic and magnetic properties

• *Nambu-Goldstone modes* (NGMs) that govern the low-energy property

biomarkers of particulate matter (PM) cardiovascular toxicity observed in controlled animal

• *Viral Shells-*studied the condensed matter physics to the assembly and maturation of viral capsids [30]

• Apiece *organism* follows its own evolutionary course and it also obeys a set of common (*Newton's law to*

• Intracellular oscillations and wavesdynamic processes in living cells are highly organized in space and time

*List of recent advancements in the field of condensed matter physics and materials physics.*

of materials

of the system

Medical • *Arrhythmogenesis* was one of the first

studies

*Neuron*s) laws

In summary, condensed matter physics is living in the form of several technical and high-tech challenges in our everyday life. The field of condensed matter and materials physics finds major developments and brings out the rudimentary comprehending toward the concepts, phenomena, and materials that facilitate scientific improvements and leads to entering into a new-fangled epoch, motivated by new competences in the research related to neutron, cyclotron, and synchrotron,

supercomputing, etc. These competencies offer prospects to scrutinize the nature of materials at complex levels with degrees of microscopic control that are exceptional. The modern era providing assurances to revolutionize the systematic technological advancements in preparing materials which leads in developing the knowledge elsewhere and through the physics of impeccable coordination the tangible solid materials that develop day-to-day environment. Understanding the basic concepts and techniques in the opto-electronic process provides information about the assemblies of multifaceted atoms and multicomponent materials and phenomena of non-equilibrium, and biological ideologies will stimulate improvements in

probing and imagining in the atomic scale, nano/micro-fabrication, and

and materials physics.

Physics with atoms in an optical lattice and some theorems

**3. Conclusion**

**6**

**Table 2.**

## **Author details**

Jagannathan Thirumalai Department of Physics, School of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, Srinivasa Ramanujan Centre, SASTRA Deemed University, Tamil Nadu, India

\*Address all correspondence to: thirumalaijg@gmail.com; thirumalai@src.sastra.edu

© 2020 The Author(s). Licensee IntechOpen. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

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**References**

Timeline

Physics. 1987;**59**:287

Physics. 1999;**71**:S59-S77

[3] U.S. National Academy of Engineering's Greatest Engineering Achievements of the 20th Century

[1] Hoddeson L, Baym G, Eckert M. Review article on the history of Cond. Mat. Physics. Reviews of Modern

[10] Burkov AA. Weyl metals. Annual Review of Condensed Matter Physics.

[11] Langen T, Geiger R, Schmiedmayer J. Ultracold atoms out of equilibrium. Annual Review of Condensed Matter

[12] Teo JCY, Hughes TL. Topological defects in symmetry-protected topological phases. Annual Review of Condensed Matter Physics. 2017;**8**:

[13] Burnell FJ. Anyon condensation and its applications. Annual Review of Condensed Matter Physics. 2018;**9**:

[14] Fradkin E, Kivelson SA, Lawler MJ, Eisenstein JP, Mackenzie AP. Nematic Fermi fluids in condensed matter physics. Annual Review of Condensed

Matter Physics. 2010;**1**:153-178

[15] LeeS-S. Recent developments in non-Fermi liquid theory. Annual Review of Condensed Matter Physics.

[16] Huang K, Rowe P, Chi C, Sreepal V, Bohn T, Zhou K-G, et al. Cationcontrolled wetting properties of

vermiculite membranes and its promise

[17] Corinna C. Maass, Carsten Krüger, Stephan Herminghaus, and Christian Bahr, Swimming droplets. Annual Review of Condensed Matter Physics.

[18] Nazarenko S, Lukaschuk S. Wave turbulence on water surface. Annual Review of Condensed Matter Physics.

for fouling resistant oil–water separation. Nature Communications.

2018;**9**:359-378

*Advances in Condensed-Matter and Materials Physics - Rudimentary Research to Topical …*

211-237

307-327

2018;**9**:227-244

2020;**11**:1097

2016;**7**:171-193

2016;**7**:61-88

Physics. 2015;**6**:201-217

[2] Kohn W. An essay on CMP in the twentieth century. Reviews of Modern

[4] Available rom: https://en.wikipedia. org/w/index.php?title=Timeline\_of\_ historic\_inventions&oldid=941769479

[5] Condensed-Matter and Materials Physics: Basic Research for Tomorrow's Technology Physics in a New Era: A Series. National Research Council, Division on Engineering and Physical Sciences, Board on Physics and

Astronomy, Committee on Condensed-Matter and Materials Physics, National Academies Press; 1999. p. 324. ISBN: 0309063493, 9780309063494

[6] Wen H-H, Li S. Materials and novel superconductivity in iron pnictide superconductors. Annual Review of CondensedMatter Physics. 2011;**2**:121-140

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**11**

**Chapter 2**

**Abstract**

optoelectronics

**1. Introduction**

optoelectronics [6–8].

Materials

*Xiaoyang Zheng and Xian Zhang*

toward unique exciton physics and devices.

Excitons in Two-Dimensional

Because of the reduced dielectric screening and enhanced Coulomb interactions, two-dimensional (2D) materials like phosphorene and transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) exhibit strong excitonic effects, resulting in fascinating many-particle phenomena covering both intralayer and interlayer excitons. Their intrinsic band gaps and strong excitonic emissions allow the possibility to tune the inherent optical, electrical, and optoelectronic properties of 2D materials via a variety of external stimuli, making them potential candidates for novel optoelectronic applications. In this review, we summarize exciton physics and devices in 2D semiconductors and insulators, especially in phosphorene, TMDs, and their van der Waals heterostructures (vdWHs). In the first part, we discuss the remarkably versatile excitonic landscape, including bright and dark excitons, trions, biexcitons, and interlayer excitons. In the second part, we examine common control methods to tune excitonic effects via electrical, magnetic, optical, and mechanical means. In the next stage, we provide recent advances on the optoelectronic device applications, such as electroluminescent devices, photovoltaic solar cells, and photodetectors. We conclude with a brief discussion on their potential to exploit vdWHs

**Keywords:** excitons, two-dimensional materials, semiconductors, heterostructures,

Since the first 'modern' 2D material, monolayer graphene, was mechanically exfoliated in 2004 [1], the family of 2D materials has been extensively flourishing, covering insulators, semiconductors, semimetals, metals, and superconductors (**Figure 1**). In addition to semimetal graphene, other actively researched 2D materials include wide-bandgap insulator hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) [2], direct bandgap semiconductor phosphorene [3], Xenes (e.g., Monolayers of silicon (silicene), germanium (germanene) and tin (stanene)) [4], and transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) with the chemical formula MX2 (M: transition metal; X: chalcogen) [5]. Compared with bulk materials, 2D materials exhibit some unparallel characteristics: removal of van der Waals interactions, an increase in the ratio of surface area-to-volume, and confinement of electrons in a plane. The change in properties, caused by a reduction in the dimensionality of 2D materials, makes them becoming the promising candidates for next-generation electronics and

### **Chapter 2**
