The role of dielectric screening of electron-hole interaction in van der Waals heterostructures is theoretically investigated. A comparison between models available in the literature for describing these interactions is made and the limitations of these approaches are discussed. A simple numerical solution of Poissons equation for a stack of dielectric slabs based on a transfer matrix method is developed, enabling the calculation of the electron-hole interaction potential at very low computational cost and with reasonable accuracy. Using different potential models, direct and indirect exciton binding energies in these systems are calculated within Wannier-Mott theory, and a comparison of theoretical results with recent experiments on excitons in two-dimensional materials is discussed.
@article{arxiv.1710.11520,
title = {Electrostatics of electron-hole interactions in van der Waals heterostructures},
author = {L. S. R. Cavalcante and A. Chaves and B. Van Duppen and F. M. Peeters and D. R. Reichman},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1710.11520},
year = {2018}
}