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    Exciton Steering via Potential Landscape Engineered by Excited Electron-Hole Phase Transition

    Yiling Yu1,*,†, Yan Xu1,*, Volodymyr Turkowski4, Bo Liu1, Sheng Liu1, Yihan Xiang1, Yaorong Liu1, Chen Shen1, Sheng Wang1 et al.

    Talat S. Rahman4, Ting Yu1, and Jun He1,2,3,‡

    • *These authors contributed equally to this work.
    • †Contact author: yilingyu@whu.edu.cn
    • ‡Contact author: He-jun@whu.edu.cn

    Phys. Rev. Lett. 136, 246901 – Published 17 June, 2026

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/sslb-bpc9

    Abstract

    Controlling exciton transport—especially intralayer excitons with strong light-matter interactions—is challenging due to the lack of efficient, tunable driving mechanisms, hindering practical excitonic device development. In this Letter, we demonstrate all-optical steering of intralayer excitons in monolayer MoS2 through optically driven, highly excited excitonic phase transitions. Combining spatial emission, microscopic theory, and drift-diffusion modeling, we show that spatial screening from high-excitation phase transitions generates exciton binding energy gradients, driving excitons toward higher binding energy regions. The engineered screening profile creates an energy landscape that drives excitons and unbound electrons and holes in opposite directions. This counterflow, enabled by their distinct responses, can be optically switched via the exciton-Mott transition. Our findings disentangle the transport mechanisms of excitons and unbound electrons and holes, demonstrating that excitons in 2D semiconductors propagate as cohesive quasiparticles, while free carriers move along band edges. This enables all-optical control of photocarrier transport and provides a new approach to engineer energy landscapes, paving the way for reconfigurable excitonic interconnects and quantum optical devices.

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