Enhanced valley splitting in monolayer WSe2 due to magnetic exchange field

Chuan Zhao, Tenzin Norden, Puqin Zhao, Yingchun Cheng, Peiyao Zhang, Fan Sun, Payam Taheri, Jieqiong Wang, Yihang Yang, Thomas Scrace, Kaifei Kang, Sen Yang, Guo-xing Miao, Renat Sabirianov, George Kioseoglou, Athos Petrou, Hao Zeng

Exploiting the valley degree of freedom to store and manipulate information provides a novel paradigm for future electronics. A monolayer transition metal dichalcogenide (TMDC) with broken inversion symmetry possesses two degenerate yet inequivalent valleys, offering unique opportunities for valley control through helicity of light. Lifting the valley degeneracy by Zeeman splitting has been demonstrated recently, which may enable valley control by a magnetic field. However, the realized valley splitting is modest, (~ 0.2 meV/T). Here we show greatly enhanced valley spitting in monolayer WSe2, utilizing the interfacial magnetic exchange field (MEF) from a ferromagnetic EuS substrate. A valley splitting of 2.5 meV is demonstrated at 1 T by magneto-reflectance measurements. Moreover, the splitting follows the magnetization of EuS, a hallmark of the MEF. Utilizing MEF of a magnetic insulator can induce magnetic order, and valley and spin polarization in TMDCs, which may enable valleytronic and quantum computing applications.