Dr. Chen Yingda from the School of Materials Science and Engineering, in collaboration with the Institute of Semiconductors of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Zhejiang University, and other institutions, recently discovered magnetic field-induced roton-like exciton states. Their research results, titled “Tunable roton-like exciton states via magnetic fields in two-dimensional layered systems,” was published in journal Physical Review B [Phys. Rev. B 112, 195304 (2025)] and received a recommendation from the PRB editorial board.

Physical Review B is an authoritative international journal in condensed matter physics under the American Physical Society (APS), a Nature Index journal, and classified as SCI Zone 2. The PRB Editor’s Recommendation is awarded to only the top 5% of all papers published in PRB. Dr. Chen Yingda is the first author of the article, and the School of Materials Science and Engineering at Taizhou University is the first affiliation.

Regulation of interlayer excitons by magnetic field (left) and magnetic energy spectrum as a function of layer thickness (right)

This research systematically proposes a numerical layered model and an analytical hydrogen-like atom model to describe intralayer and interlayer excitons in multilayers, revealing that under a magnetic field, exciton behavior gradually transitions from a Rydberg-like state to a magnetoexciton state as layer thickness increases. Interlayer and intralayer excitons exhibit distinct magnetic responses. Interlayer excitons show significant mass enhancement and band shifting in the ground state with increasing magnetic field, and can induce rotor states in low-energy excited states, whereas the ground state of intralayer excitons is almost unaffected by the magnetic field. These properties provide important references for the differential regulation of different types of excitons.

Paper link: https://journals.aps.org/prb/abstract/10.1103/km2j-4qfp