Electrically Tunable Valley Dynamics in Twisted WSe_{2}/WSe_{2} Bilayers

Phys Rev Lett. 2020 May 29;124(21):217403. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.124.217403.

Abstract

The twist degree of freedom provides a powerful new tool for engineering the electrical and optical properties of van der Waals heterostructures. Here, we show that the twist angle can be used to control the spin-valley properties of transition metal dichalcogenide bilayers by changing the momentum alignment of the valleys in the two layers. Specifically, we observe that the interlayer excitons in twisted WSe_{2}/WSe_{2} bilayers exhibit a high (>60%) degree of circular polarization (DOCP) and long valley lifetimes (>40 ns) at zero electric and magnetic fields. The valley lifetime can be tuned by more than 3 orders of magnitude via electrostatic doping, enabling switching of the DOCP from ∼80% in the n-doped regime to <5% in the p-doped regime. These results open up new avenues for tunable chiral light-matter interactions, enabling novel device schemes that exploit the valley degree of freedom.