In stacks of transition metal dichalcogenide monolayers with arbitrary twisting angles, we explore a new class of bright excitons arising from the pronounced Förster coupling, whose dimensionality is tuned by its in-plane momentum. The low energy sector at small momenta is two-dimensional, featuring a Mexican Hat dispersion, while the high energy sector at larger momenta becomes three-dimensional (3D) with sizable group velocity both in-plane and out-of-plane. By choices of the spacer thickness, interface exciton mode strongly localized at designated layers can emerge out of the cross-dimensional bulk dispersion for a topological origin. Step-edges in spacers can be exploited for engineering lateral interfaces to enable interlayer communication of the topological interface exciton. Combined with the polarization selection rule inherited from the monolayer building block, these exotic exciton properties open up new opportunities for multilayer design towards 3D integration of valley exciton optoelectronics.
Electron valleys in transition-metal dichalcogenide monolayers drive novel physics and allow designing multifunctional architectures for applications. We propose to manipulate the electron valleys in these systems for spin/valley filter and valve devices through band engineering. Instead of the magnetic proximity effect that has been extensively used in previous studies, in our strategy, the electron valleys are directly coupled to the spin-polarized states of the two-dimensional ferromagnets. We find that this coupling results in a valley-selective gap opening due to the spin-momentum locking…
In monolayer hexagonal lattices, two inequivalent valleys appear in the Brillouin zone. With inversion symmetry breaking, we find chiral phonons with valley contrasting circular polarization and ionic magnetic moment. At valley centers, there is a three-fold rotational symmetry endowing phonons with a quantized pseudo angular momentum, which includes spin and orbital parts. From conservation of the pseudo angular momentum, crystal momentum and energy, selection rules in intervalley scattering of electrons by phonons are obtained. The chiral valley phonons are verified and the selection rules a…
Valleytronics is a rising topic to explore the emergent degree of freedom for charge carriers in energy band edges and has attracted a great interest due to many intriguing quantum phenomena and potential application in information processing industry. Creation of permanent valley polarization, i.e. unbalanced occupation at different valleys, is a chief challenge and also urgent question to be solved in valleytronics. Here we predict that the spin-orbit coupling and magnetic ordering allow spontaneous valley Zeeman-type splitting in pristine monolayer of VAgP2Se6 by using first-principles calc…
Modern electronic devices heavily rely on the accurate control of charge and spin of electrons. The emergence of controllable valley degree of freedom brings new possibilities and presents a promising prospect towards valleytronics. Recently, valley excitation selected by chiral optical pumping has been observed in monolayer MoS2. In this work, we report polarized photoluminescence (PL) measurements for monolayer MoSe2, another member of the family of transition-metal-dichalcogenides (MX2), and observe drastic difference from the outcomes of MoS2. In particular, we identify a valley polarizati…
We propose a new family of the d0 orbital XY (X = K, Rb, Cs; Y = N, P, As, Sb, Bi) monolayers with abundant and novel topology and valley properties. The KN, RbN, RbP, RbAs, CsP, CsAs, and CsSb monolayers possess remarkable quantum anomalous Hall effect (QAHE). CsSb monolayer also exhibits extraordinary valley QAHE with giant splitting. Moreover, the topological properties of XY monolayers can be effciently tuned by the in-plane strain, owing to the strain-induced band inversion between the px;y and pz orbitals. Our findings suggest that the d0 orbital XY monolayers can be good candidates for …
Ferrovalley materials can achieve manipulation of the valley degree of freedom with intrinsic spontaneous valley polarization introduced by their intrinsic ferromagnetism. A good ferrovalley material should possess perpendicular magnetic anisotropy (PMA), valence band maximum (VBM)/conduction band minimum (CBM) at valley points, strong ferromagnetic (FM) coupling and proper valley splitting. In this work, the monolayer $\mathrm{GdCl_2}$ is proposed as a potential candidate material for valleytronic applications by the first-principles calculations. It is proved that monolayer $\mathrm{GdCl_2}$…
We show that inversion symmetry breaking together with spin-orbit coupling leads to coupled spin and valley physics in monolayers of MoS2 and other group-VI dichalcogenides, making possible controls of spin and valley in these 2D materials. The spin-valley coupling at the valence band edges suppresses spin and valley relaxation, as flip of each index alone is forbidden by the valley contrasting spin splitting. Valley Hall and spin Hall effects coexist in both electron-doped and hole-doped systems. Optical interband transitions have frequency-dependent polarization selection rules which allow s…
Breaking space-time symmetries in two-dimensional crystals (2D) can dramatically influence their macroscopic electronic properties. Monolayer transition-metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) are prime examples where the intrinsically broken crystal inversion symmetry permits the generation of valley-selective electron populations, even though the two valleys are energetically degenerate, locked by time-reversal symmetry. Lifting the valley degeneracy in these materials is of great interest because it would allow for valley-specific band engineering and offer additional control in valleytronic applicati…
We investigate the valley depolarization due to the electron-hole exchange interaction in monolayer MoS$_{2}$. Both the long- and short-range parts of the intra- and inter-valley electron-hole exchange interactions are calculated. We find that both the long- and short-range exchange interactions can cause the inter- and intra-valley bright exciton transitions. With the intra-valley bright exciton transition channel nearly forbidden due to the large splitting of the valence bands, the inter-valley channel due to the exchange interaction can cause the valley depolarization efficiently by the Mai…
The valley degree of freedom is a sought-after quantum number in monolayer transition-metal dichalcogenides. Similar to optical spin orientation in semiconductors, the helicity of absorbed photons can be relayed to the valley (pseudospin) quantum number of photoexcited electrons and holes. Also similar to the quantum-mechanical spin, the valley quantum number is not a conserved quantity. Valley depolarization of excitons in monolayer transition-metal dichalcogenides due to long-range electron-hole exchange typically takes a few ps at low temperatures. Exceptions to this behavior are monolayers…
We investigate the optical control possibilities of spin-valley qubit carried by single electrons localized in nanostructures of monolayer TMDs, including small quantum dots formed by lateral heterojunction and charged impurities. The quantum controls are discussed when the confinement induces valley hybridization and when the valley hybridization is absent. We show that the bulk valley and spin optical selection rules can be inherited in different forms in the two scenarios, both of which allow the definition of spin-valley qubit with desired optical controllability. We also investigate nucle…
Using time-resolved optical Kerr rotation, we measure the low temperature valley dynamics of resident electrons and holes in exfoliated WSe$_2$ monolayers as a systematic function of carrier density. In an effort to reconcile the many disparate timescales of carrier valley dynamics in monolayer semiconductors reported to date, we directly compare the doping-dependent valley relaxation in two electrostatically-gated WSe$_2$ monolayers having different dielectric environments. In a fully-encapsulated structure (hBN/WSe$_2$/hBN, where hBN is hexagonal boron nitride), valley relaxation is found to…
Valleytronic materials, characterized by local extrema (valley) in their bands, and topological insulators have separately attracted great interest recently. However, the interplay between valleytronic and topological properties in one single system, likely to enable important unexplored phenomena and applications, has been largely overlooked so far. Here, by combining a tight-binding model with first-principles calculations, we find the large-band-gap quantum spin Hall effects (QSHEs) and valley Hall effects (VHEs) appear simultaneously in the Bi monolayers decorated with halogen elements, de…
Using time-resolved Kerr rotation, we measure the spin/valley dynamics of resident electrons and holes in single charge-tunable monolayers of the archetypal transition-metal dichalcogenide (TMD) semiconductor WSe2. In the n-type regime, we observe long (70 ns) polarization relaxation of electrons that is sensitive to in-plane magnetic fields $B_y$, indicating spin relaxation. In marked contrast, extraordinarily long (2 microsecond) polarization relaxation of holes is revealed in the p-type regime, that is unaffected by $B_y$, directly confirming long-standing expectations of strong spin-valley…
Electronic and spintronic devices rely on the fact that free charge carriers in solids carry electric charge and spin, respectively. There are, however, other properties of charge carriers that might be exploited in new families of devices. In particular, if there are two or more conduction (or valence) band extrema in momentum space, then confining charge carriers in one of these valleys allows the possibility of valleytronic devices. Such valley polarization has been demonstrated by using strain and magnetic fields, but neither of these approaches allow for dynamic control. Recently, optical…
A new degree of freedom, the valley pseudospin, emerges in atomically thin two-dimensional transition metal dichalcogenides (MX2) and has attracted great scientific interest. The capability to manipulate the valley pseudospin, in analogy to the control of spin in spintronics, can open up exciting opportunities in valleytronics. Here we demonstrate that an ultrafast and ultrahigh valley pseudomagnetic field can be generated using circularly polarized femtosecond pulses to selectively control the valley degree of freedom in monolayer MX2. Employing ultrafast pump-probe spectroscopy, we observed …
Achieving combination of spin and valley polarized states with topological insulating phase is pregnant to promote the fantastic integration of topological physics, spintronics and valleytronics. In this work, a spin-valley-coupled quantum spin Hall insulator (svc-QSHI) is predicted in Janus monolayer $\mathrm{CSb_{1.5}Bi_{1.5}}$ with dynamic, mechanical and thermal stabilities. The inequivalent valleys have opposite Berry curvature and spin moment, which can produce a spin-valley Hall effect. In the center of Brillouin zone, a Rashba-type spin splitting can be observed due to missing horizont…
Exciton dispersion as a function of center-of-mass momentum, \textbf{Q}, is essential to the understanding of exciton dynamics. We use the ab-initio GW-Bethe Salpeter equation method to calculate the dispersion of excitons in monolayer MoS$_2$ and find a nonanalytic light-like dispersion. This behavior arises from an unusual $|Q|$ term in both the intra- and inter-valley exchange of the electron-hole interaction, which concurrently gives rise to a valley quantum phase of winding number two. A simple effective Hamiltonian to $Q^2$ order with analytic solutions is derived to describe quantitativ…
Semiconducting transition metal dichalcogenide monolayers have emerged as promising candidates for future valleytronics-based quantum information technologies. Two distinct momentum-states of tightly-bound electron-hole pairs in these materials can be deterministically initialized via irradiation with circularly polarized light. Here, we investigate the ultrafast dynamics of such a valley polarization in monolayer tungsten diselenide by means of time-resolved Kerr reflectometry. The observed Kerr signal in our sample stems exclusively from charge-neutral excitons. Our findings support the pict…
We investigate with polarized microphotoluminescence the optical pumping of the valley degree of freedom in charge-tunable MoS2 monolayers encapsulated with hexagonal boron nitride at cryogenic temperatures. We report a large steady state valley polarization of the different excitonic complexes following circularly-polarized laser excitation 25 meV above the neutral exciton transition. For the first time in this material we reveal efficient valley pumping of positively-charged trions, which were so far elusive in non-encapsulated monolayers due to defect and laser-induced large electron doping…
Monolayers of transition metal dichalcogenides are ideal materials to control both spin and valley degrees of freedom either electrically or optically. Nevertheless, optical excitation mostly generates excitons species with inherently short lifetime and spin/valley relaxation time. Here we demonstrate a very efficient spin/valley optical pumping of resident electrons in n-doped WSe2 and WS2 monolayers. We observe that, using a continuous wave laser and appropriate doping and excitation densities, negative trion doublet lines exhibit circular polarization of opposite sign and the photoluminesce…
Valley pseudospin in two-dimensional (2D) transition-metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) allows optical control of spin-valley polarization and intervalley quantum coherence. Defect states in TMDs give rise to new exciton features and theoretically exhibit spin-valley polarization; however, experimental achievement of this phenomenon remains challenges. Here, we report unambiguous valley pseudospin of defect-bound localized excitons in CVD-grown monolayer MoS2; enhanced valley Zeeman splitting with an effective g-factor of -6.2 is observed. Our results reveal that all five d-orbitals and the increase…
We examine the full static non-linear optical response of uniaxially strained transition metal dichalcogenide monolayers doped with a finite carrier density in the conduction band, in the presence of disorder. We find that the customary shift current is suppressed, yet we identify a strong, valley-dependent non-reciprocal response, which we term a \textit{unidirectional valley-contrasting photo-current} (UVCP). This DC current originates from the combined effect of strain and Kramers symmetry breaking by trigonal warping, while the contributions due to individual valleys can be separated by in…
We developed a comprehensive theoretical framework focusing on many-body effects of exciton species in monolayer WS$_2$, including bright and dark excitons, and intra- and inter-valley biexcitons, to investigate valley dynamics in monolayer WS$_2$ subjected to a tilted magnetic field B. In particular, the evolution of the exciton population densities and the many-body particle scatterings are considered to calculate the valley polarization (V P ) as a function of the magnetic field. We found valley splittings for the dark exciton and biexciton energy levels that are larger than those of bright…
We report magneto-absorption spectroscopy of gated WSe$_2$ monolayers in high magnetic fields up to 60~T. When doped with a 2D Fermi sea of mobile holes, well-resolved sequences of optical transitions are observed in both $σ^\pm$ circular polarizations, which unambiguously and separately indicate the number of filled Landau levels (LLs) in both $K$ and $K'$ valleys. This reveals the interaction-enhanced valley Zeeman energy, which is found to be highly tunable with hole density $p$. We exploit this tunability to align the LLs in $K$ and $K'$, and find that the 2D hole gas becomes unstable agai…
Anomalous valley Hall (AVH) effect is a fundamental transport phenomenon in the field of condensed-matter physics. Usually, the research on AVH effect is mainly focused on 2D lattices with ferromagnetic order. Here, by means of model analysis, we present a general design principle for realizing AVH effect in antiferromagnetic monolayers, which involves the introduction of nonequilibrium potentials to break of PT symmetry. Using first-principles calculations, we further demonstrate this design principle by stacking antiferromagnetic monolayer MnPSe3 on ferroelectric monolayer Sc2CO2 and achieve…
Monolayers of transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDCs) are atomically thin direct-gap semiconductors with potential applications in nanoelectronics, optoelectronics, and electrochemical sensing. Recent theoretical and experimental efforts suggest that they are ideal systems for exploiting the valley degrees of freedom of Bloch electrons. For example, Dirac valley polarization has been demonstrated in mechanically exfoliated monolayer MoS2 samples by polarization-resolved photoluminescence, although polarization has rarely been seen at room temperature. Here we report a new method for synthesiz…
The valley degrees of freedom of carriers in crystals is useful to process information and perform logic operations, and it is a key factor for valley application to realize the valley polarization. Here, we propose a model that the valley polarization transition at different valley points (-K and K points) is produced by biaxial strain. By the first-principle calculations, we illustrate our idea with a concrete example of Janus $\mathrm{GdClF}$ monolayer. The predicted $\mathrm{GdClF}$ monolayer is dynamically, mechanically and thermally stable, and is a ferromagnetic (FM) semiconductor with …
We study the effect of a perpendicular magnetic field on the electronic structure and charge transport of a monolayer MoS$_2$ nanoribbon at zero temperature. We particularly explore the induced valley Zeeman effect through the coupling between the magnetic field, $B$, and the orbital magnetic moment. We show that the effective two-band Hamiltonian provides a mismatch between the valley Zeeman coupling in the conduction and valence bands due to the effective mass asymmetry and it is proportional to $B^2$ similar to the diamagnetic shift of exciton binding energies. However, the dominant term wh…
One of the main tasks in the investigation of 2-dimensional transition metal dichalcogenides is the determination of valley lifetimes. In this work, we combine time-resolved Kerr rotation with electrical transport measurements to explore the gate-dependent valley lifetimes of free conduction band electrons of monolayer WSe$_2$. When tuning the Fermi energy into the conduction band we observe a strong decrease of the respective valley lifetimes which is consistent with both spin-orbit and electron-phonon scattering. We explain the formation of a valley polarization by the scattering of opticall…
In monolayer transition-metal dichalcogenide semiconductors, many-body correlations can manifest in optical spectra when photoexcited electron-hole pairs (excitons) are introduced into a 2D Fermi sea of mobile carriers. At low carrier densities, the formation of positively and negatively charged excitons ($X^\pm$) is well documented. However, in WSe$_2$ monolayers, an additional absorption resonance, often called $X^{-\prime}$, emerges at high electron density. Its origin is not understood. Here we investigate the $X^{-\prime}$ state via polarized absorption spectroscopy of electrostatically-g…
We address the ballistic transmission of charge carriers across ordered line defects in monolayer transition metal dichalcogenides. Our study reveals the presence of a transport gap driven by spin-orbit interactions, spin and valley filtering, both stemming from a simple picture of spin and momentum conservation, as well as the electron-hole asymmetry of charge-carrier transmission. Electronic transport properties of experimentally observed ordered line defects in monolayer MoS$_2$, in particular, the vacancy lines and inversion domain boundaries, are further investigated using first-principle…
We report on nanosecond long, gate-dependent valley lifetimes of free charge carriers in monolayer WSe$_2$, unambiguously identified by the combination of time-resolved Kerr rotation and electrical transport measurements. While the valley polarization increases when tuning the Fermi level into the conduction or valence band, there is a strong decrease of the respective valley lifetime consistent with both electron-phonon and spin-orbit scattering. The longest lifetimes are seen for spin-polarized bound excitons in the band gap region. We explain our findings via two distinct, Fermi level-depen…
The coupling between spin, charge, and lattice degrees of freedom plays an important role in a wide range of fundamental phenomena. Monolayer semiconducting transitional metal dichalcogenides have emerged as an outstanding platform for studying these coupling effects because they possess unique spin-valley locking physics for hosting rich excitonic species and the reduced screening for strong Coulomb interactions. Here, we report the observation of multiple valley phonons, phonons with momentum vectors pointing to the corners of the hexagonal Brillouin zone, and the resulting exciton complexes…
Due to degeneracies arising from crystal symmetries, it is possible for electron states at band edges ("valleys") to have additional spin-like quantum numbers. An important question is whether coherent manipulation can be performed on such valley pseudospins, analogous to that routinely implemented using true spin, in the quest for quantum technologies. Here we show for the first time that SU(2) valley coherence can indeed be generated and detected. Using monolayer semiconductor WSe2 devices, we first establish the circularly polarized optical selection rules for addressing individual valley e…
We show room temperature valley coherence with in MoS2, MoSe2, WS2 and WSe2 monolayers using linear polarization resolved hot photoluminescence (PL), at energies close to the excitation - demonstrating preservation of valley coherence before sufficient scattering events. The features of the co-polarized hot luminescence allow us to extract the lower bound of the binding energy of the A exciton in monolayer MoS2 as 0.42 (+/- 0.02) eV. The broadening of the PL peak is found to be dominated by Boltzmann-type hot luminescence tail, and using the slope of the exponential decay, the carrier temperat…
We report experimental evidences on selective occupation of the degenerate valleys in MoS2 monolayers by circularly polarized optical pumping. Over 30% valley polarization has been observed at K and K' valley via the polarization resolved luminescence spectra on pristine MoS2 monolayers. It demonstrates one viable way to generate and detect valley polarization towards the conceptual valleytronics applications with information carried by the valley index.
Coherent optical dressing of quantum materials offers technological advantages to control their electronic properties, such as the electronic valley degree of freedom in monolayer transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs). Here, we observe a new type of optical Stark effect in monolayer WS2, one that is mediated by intervalley biexcitons under the blue-detuned driving with circularly polarized light. We found that such helical optical driving not only induces an exciton energy downshift at the excitation valley, but also causes an anomalous energy upshift at the opposite valley, which is normall…
We report circularly-polarized optical reflection spectroscopy of monolayer WS$_2$ and MoS$_2$ at low temperatures (4~K) and in high magnetic fields to 65~T. Both the A and the B exciton transitions exhibit a clear and very similar Zeeman splitting of approximately $-$230~$μ$eV/T ($g\simeq -4$), providing the first measurements of the valley Zeeman effect and associated $g$-factors in monolayer transition-metal disulphides. These results complement and are compared with recent low-field photoluminescence measurements of valley degeneracy breaking in the monolayer diselenides MoSe$_2$ and WSe$_…
Valleytronics targets the exploitation of the additional degrees of freedom in materials where the energy of the carriers may assume several equal minimum values (valleys) at non-equivalent points of the reciprocal space. In single layers of transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) the lack of inversion symmetry, combined with a large spin-orbit interaction, leads to a conduction (valence) band with different spin-polarized minima (maxima) having equal energies. This offers the opportunity to manipulate information at the level of the charge (electrons or holes), spin (up or down) and crystal m…
Three-dimensional confinement allows semiconductor quantum dots (QDs) to exhibit size-tunable electronic and optical properties that enable a wide range of opto-electronic applications from displays, solar cells and bio-medical imaging to single-electron devices. Additional modalities such as spin and valley properties can provide further degrees of freedom requisite for quantum information and spintronics. When seeking to combine these material features into QD structures, however, confinement can cause hybridization that inhibits the robustness of these emergent properties for insertion into…
The electronic states at the direct band gap of monolayer WSe2 at the $K^+$ and $K^-$ valleys are related by time reversal and may be viewed as pseudo-spins. The corresponding optical interband transitions are governed by robust excitons. In double resonant Raman spectroscopy, we uncover that the 2s exciton state energy differs from the 1s state energy by exactly the energy of the combination of several prominent phonons. Superimposed on the exciton photoluminescence (PL) we observe the double resonant Raman signal. This spectrally narrow peak shifts with the excitation laser energy as incomin…
The valley pseudospin in monolayer transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) has been proposed as a new way to manipulate information in various optoelectronic devices. This relies on a large valley polarization that remains stable over long timescales (hundreds of ns). However, time resolved measurements report valley lifetimes of only a few ps. This has been attributed to mechanisms such as phonon-mediated inter-valley scattering and a precession of the valley psedospin through electron-hole exchange. Here we use transient spin grating to directly measure the valley depolarization lifetime in …
We apply a microscopic theory of exciton-polaritons in cavity-confined monolayer transition-metal dichalcogenides including both optical polarizations in the monolayer plane, allowing to describe how chiral cavity photons interact with the valley degrees of freedom of the active material. Upon polariton formation, the degenerate excitons inhabiting the two inequivalent valleys are shown to assume bonding and antibonding superpositions as a result of cavity-mediated intravalley interactions combined with intervalley Coulomb interactions. This is representative of a polariton-induced coherent mi…
The newly developed two-dimensional layered materials provide perfect platform for valley-spintronics exploration. To determine the prospect of utilizing the valley degree of freedom, it is of great importance to directly detect and understand the valley dynamics in these materials. Here, the exciton valley dynamics in monolayer WSe$_2$ is investigated by the two-color pump-probe magneto-optical Kerr technique. By tuning the probe photon energy in resonance with the free excitons and trions, the valley relaxation time of different excitonic states in monolayer WSe$_2$ is determined. Valley rel…
We investigate valley dynamics associated with trions in monolayer tungsten diselenide (WSe2) using polarization resolved two-color pump-probe spectroscopy. When tuning the pump and probe energy across the trion resonance, distinct trion valley polarization dynamics are observed as a function of energy and attributed to the intra-valley and inter-valley trions in monolayer WSe2. We observe no decay of a near-unity valley polarization associated with the intra-valley trions during ~ 25 ps, while the valley polarization of the inter-valley trions exhibits a fast decay of ~ 4 ps. Furthermore, we …
We study valley-dependent spin transport theoretically in monolayer transition-metal dichalcogenides in which a variety of spin and valley physics are expected because of spin-valley coupling. The results show that the spins are valley-selectively excited with appropriate carrier doping and valley polarized spin current (VPSC) is generated. The VPSC leads to the spin-current Hall effect, transverse spin accumulation originating from the Berry curvature in momentum space. The results indicate that spin excitations with spin-valley coupling lead to both valley and spin transport, which is promis…
We propose a practical scheme to generate a pure valley current in monolayer transition metal dichalcogenides by one-photon absorption of linearly polarized light. We show that the pure valley current can be detected by either photoluminescence measurements or the ultrafast pump-probe technique. Our method, together with the previously demonstrated generation of valley polarization, opens up the exciting possibility of ultrafast optical-only manipulation of the valley index. The tilted field effect on the valley current in experiment is also discussed.
The direct gap interband transitions in transition metal dichalcogenides monolayers are governed by chiral optical selection rules. Determined by laser helicity, optical transitions in either the $K^+$ or $K^-$ valley in momentum space are induced. Linearly polarized laser excitation prepares a coherent superposition of valley states. Here we demonstrate the control of the exciton valley coherence in monolayer WSe2 by tuning the applied magnetic field perpendicular to the monolayer plane. We show rotation of this coherent superposition of valley states by angles as large as 30 degrees in appli…
