Emory theorists propose light-based method to locate anyons in 2D materials
Theoretical physicists at Emory University report a way to use light to detect the "spectral fingerprints" of anyons, quasiparticles that emerge from the collective behavior of many electrons. The work was published in Physical Review Letters; Luiz Santos is senior author and PhD candidate Tianhong Lu is first author. The team predicts that in certain atomically thin semiconductors, an exciton (an electron paired with a hole) that comes close enough to an anyon will bind to it, forming an exciton-anyon state that should produce a detectable energy shift. The result is theoretical, based on a model and computer simulation, and the authors hope experimentalists will test it. The work was funded by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Basic Energy Sciences.