Engineering photonic crystal slab modes for strong exciton-photon coupling and polariton dispersion control

Abstract

We numerically study exciton-photon coupling in a hybrid structure composed of a period-doubled Si3N4 photonic crystal slab and an hBN-encapsulated MoSe2 monolayer. Period doubling folds quasi-guided modes into the light cone and produces spectrally separated photonic branches whose radiative character is controlled by the symmetry of the doubled unit cell, resulting in one bright and one bound state in the continuum (BIC)-like mode at normal incidence. We then use the hBN thickness as an independent tuning parameter for the vertical field profile. Increasing the hBN thickness redistributes the resonant field toward the MoSe2 monolayer and enhances the Rabi splitting from about 3-4 meV to 8.5 meV, corresponding to an increase in the coupling strength from approximately 1.5-1.7 meV to 4.3-4.4 meV. Comparison between bright and BIC-like configurations shows that the quality factor primarily determines radiative visibility and linewidth, whereas the coupling strength is mainly governed by the field amplitude at the monolayer. We further show that the hBN layer controls the hybridization of folded TE-like modes at finite momentum, leading to an additional photonic gap whose size can be tuned by the hBN thickness and closes at an hBN thickness of approximately 113 nm. In the hybrid structure, we observe finite-momentum exciton-polariton states that, depending on the hBN thickness, form either through coupling to an isolated photonic branch or through coupling to two nearly degenerate photonic modes. These results identify period-doubled photonic crystal slabs as a flexible platform for controlling radiative coupling, exciton-photon overlap, and polariton dispersion in hybrid structures based on transition-metal dichalcogenide monolayers.