Quadrupolar-dipolar excitonic transition in a tunnel-coupled van der Waals heterotrilayer

Strongly bound excitons determine light-matter interactions in van der Waals (vdW) heterostructures of two-dimensional semiconductors. Unlike fundamental particles, quasiparticles in condensed matter, such as excitons, can be tailored to alter their interactions and realize emergent quantum phases. Here, using a WS2/WSe2/WS2 heterotrilayer, we create a quantum superposition of oppositely oriented dipolar excitons – a quadrupolar exciton – wherein an electron is layer-hybridized in WS2 layers while the hole localizes in WSe2. In contrast to dipolar excitons, symmetric quadrupolar excitons only redshift in an out-of-plane electric field. At higher densities and finite electric field, the nonlinear Stark shift of quadrupolar excitons becomes linear, signalling a transition to dipolar excitons resulting from exciton-exciton interactions, while at vanishing electric field, reduced exchange interaction suggests antiferroelectric correlations between dipolar excitons. Our results present vdW heterotrilayers as a field-tunable platform to engineer light-matter interactions and explore quantum phase transitions between spontaneously ordered many-exciton phases.