Transition-metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) host tightly bound electron-hole pairs—excitons—which can be either optically bright or dark based on spin and momentum selection rules. In tungsten-based TMDs, a momentum-forbidden dark exciton is the energy ground state, and therefore, it strongly affects the emission properties. In this work, we brighten the momentum-forbidden dark exciton by placing monolayer tungsten disulfide on top of nanotextured substrates, which imparts tensile strain, modifying its electronic band structure. This enables phonon-assisted exciton scattering between momentum valleys, thereby brightening momentum-forbidden dark excitons. In addition to offering a tuning knob for light-matter interactions in two-dimensional materials, our results pave the way for designing ultrasensitive strain-sensing devices based on TMDs.

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• Excitons
• Monolayer films
• Transition metal dichalcogenides
• Density functional calculations
• Photoluminescence
• Raman spectroscopy