Wigner polarons probe the dynamics of a Wigner crystal in a monolayer semiconductor

Nature Physics (2026) Cite this article Wigner crystals—lattices made purely of electrons—provide a platform for studying correlation-driven quantum phase transitions. Despite extensive research, accessing the internal dynamics of Wigner crystals has remained challenging, with most experiments probing only static order or collective motion. Here we demonstrate optical probing and the manipulation of zero-field Wigner crystals and elucidate their static and dynamic properties in the frequency domain. We observe optical resonances that we identify as Wigner polarons—quasiparticles formed when the electron lattice is locally distorted by exciton–Wigner crystal coupling. We further achieve all-optical control of spins in the Wigner crystal, thereby directly probing valley-dependent Wigner polaron scattering well above the magnetic ordering temperature and in the absence of any external magnetic field. 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Lett. 124, 097401 (2020).Article ADS Google Scholar Download referencesThis research is primarily supported by the US Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Sciences Early Career Research Program (Award No. DE-SC-0022885). The fabrication of samples was supported by National Science Foundation CAREER Award (No. DMR-2145712) and Army Research Office W911NF2510066.

This research used the Quantum Material Press at the Center for Functional Nanomaterials, which is a US Department of Energy Office of Science User Facility at Brookhaven National Laboratory (Contract No. DE-SC0012704). I.E. was supported by the National Science Foundation through the University of Wisconsin Materials Research Science and Engineering Center (Grant No. DMR-2309000). K.W. and T.T. acknowledge support from the CREST (Grant No. JPMJCR24A5), JST and World Premier International Research Center Initiative, MEXT, Japan. E.D. and R.S. acknowledge support from the German Research Foundation (Project ID 273811115 – SFB 1225 ISOQUANT) and Germany’s Excellence Strategy (Grant No. EXC 2181/1 - 390900948 for the Heidelberg STRUCTURES Excellence Cluster). A.C. is supported by an ETH Fellowship.Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USALifu Zhang, Liuxin Gu, Ruihao Ni, Rundong Ma & You ZhouInstitute for Quantum Electronics, ETH Zürich, Zurich, SwitzerlandHaydn S. Adlong, Arthur Christianen & Atac ImamogluInstitute for Theoretical Physics, ETH Zürich, Zurich, SwitzerlandHaydn S. Adlong & Arthur ChristianenInstitut für Theoretische Physik, Universität Heidelberg, Heidelberg, GermanyEugen Dizer & Richard SchmidtCenter for Functional Nanomaterials, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, NY, USASuji Park & Houk JangResearch Center for Electronic and Optical Materials, National Institute for Materials Science, Tsukuba, JapanTakashi TaniguchiResearch Center for Materials Nanoarchitectonics, National Institute for Materials Science, Tsukuba, JapanKenji WatanabeDepartment of Physics, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, USAIlya EsterlisSearch author on:PubMed Google ScholarSearch author on:PubMed Google ScholarSearch author on:PubMed Google ScholarSearch author on:PubMed Google ScholarSearch author on:PubMed Google ScholarSearch author on:PubMed Google ScholarSearch author on:PubMed Google ScholarSearch author on:PubMed Google ScholarSearch author on:PubMed Google ScholarSearch author on:PubMed Google ScholarSearch author on:PubMed Google ScholarSearch author on:PubMed Google ScholarSearch author on:PubMed Google ScholarSearch author on:PubMed Google ScholarSearch author on:PubMed Google ScholarY.Z. and L.Z. conceived the project. L.Z. fabricated the samples and performed the experiments. L.G., R.N., R.M., S.P. and H.J. assisted with sample fabrication. L.G. and R.M. helped with the optical measurements. H.S.A., A.C., E.D., A.I. and R.S. contributed to the theoretical interpretation of the data. L.Z., I.E. and Y.Z. contributed to the data analysis. T.T. and K.W. provided hBN samples. L.Z. and Y.Z. wrote the Article with extensive input from the other authors.Correspondence to You Zhou.The authors declare no competing interests.Nature Physics thanks the anonymous reviewers for their contribution to the peer review of this work. Peer reviewer reports are available.Publisher’s note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.Supplementary Discussions 1 and 2 and Figs. 1–12.Statistical source data.Statistical source data.Statistical source data.Statistical source data.Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.Reprints and permissionsZhang, L., Gu, L., Adlong, H.S. et al. Wigner polarons probe the dynamics of a Wigner crystal in a monolayer semiconductor. Nat. Phys. (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41567-026-03398-xDownload citationReceived: 10 December 2025Accepted: 30 June 2026Published: 11 August 2026Version of record: 11 August 2026DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41567-026-03398-xAnyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content:Sorry, a shareable link is not currently available for this article. Provided by the Springer Nature SharedIt content-sharing initiative