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Spin-valley Rashba monolayer laser

Nature Materials volume 22, pages 1085–1093 (2023)Cite this article

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Abstract

Direct-bandgap transition metal dichalcogenide monolayers are appealing candidates to construct atomic-scale spin-optical light sources owing to their valley-contrasting optical selection rules. Here we report on a spin-optical monolayer laser by incorporating a WS2 monolayer into a heterostructure microcavity supporting high-Q photonic spin-valley resonances. Inspired by the creation of valley pseudo-spins in monolayers, the spin-valley modes are generated from a photonic Rashba-type spin splitting of a bound state in the continuum, which gives rise to opposite spin-polarized ±K valleys due to emergent photonic spin–orbit interaction under inversion symmetry breaking. The Rashba monolayer laser shows intrinsic spin polarizations, high spatial and temporal coherence, and inherent symmetry-enabled robustness features, enabling valley coherence in the WS2 monolayer upon arbitrary pump polarizations at room temperature. Our monolayer-integrated spin-valley microcavities open avenues for further classical and non-classical coherent spin-optical light sources exploring both electron and photon spins.

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Fig. 1: Illustration of a spin-valley Rashba monolayer laser.
Fig. 2: Principle of spin-valley generation via a photonic Rashba effect.
Fig. 3: Spin-valley (‘cold’) optical microcavity.
Fig. 4: Characteristics of spin-valley Rashba monolayer lasing.
Fig. 5: Verification of room-temperature Rashba monolayer lasing.

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Data availability

The authors declare that the main data supporting the findings of this study are available within the article and its supplementary information. Extra data are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

K.R., X.D., D.R., C.-L.L., V.G., V.K. and E.H. gratefully acknowledge financial support from the Israel Science Foundation (ISF, grant number 1170/20) and the Helen Diller foundation. The fabrication was performed at the Micro-Nano Fabrication & Printing Unit (MNF&PU), Technion. B.W. is sponsored by Shanghai Pujiang Program. A.P., P.K.M., A.C. and A.I. acknowledge the generous support from the ISF (grant numbers 2596/21 and 2171/17).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Atomic-Scale Photonics Laboratory, Russell Berrie Nanotechnology Institute, and Helen Diller Quantum Center, Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel

    Kexiu Rong, Xiaoyang Duan, Dror Reichenberg, Chieh-li Liu, Vladi Gorovoy, Vladimir Kleiner & Erez Hasman

  2. State Key Laboratory of Advanced Optical Communication Systems and Networks, School of Physics and Astronomy, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China

    Bo Wang

  3. Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel

    Assael Cohen, Pranab K. Mohapatra, Avinash Patsha & Ariel Ismach

  4. Faculty of Materials Science and Engineering, Russell Berrie Nanotechnology Institute, and Helen Diller Quantum Center, Technion–Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel

    Subhrajit Mukherjee & Elad Koren

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  1. Kexiu Rong
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All authors contributed significantly to this work.

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Correspondence to Erez Hasman.

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Nature Materials thanks Alex Krasnok and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

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Supplementary Sections 1–12, Figs 1–22 and Table 1.

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Rong, K., Duan, X., Wang, B. et al. Spin-valley Rashba monolayer laser. Nat. Mater. 22, 1085–1093 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41563-023-01603-3

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