arXiv · 1401.0667
Bright excitons in monolayer transition metal dichalcogenides: from Dirac cones to Dirac saddle points
Abstract
In monolayer transition metal dichalcogenides, tightly bound excitons have been discovered with a valley pseudospin that can be optically addressed through polarization selection rules. Here, we show that this valley pseudospin is strongly coupled to the exciton center-of-mass motion through electron-hole exchange. This coupling realizes a massless Dirac cone with chirality index I=2 for excitons inside the light cone, i.e. bright excitons. Under moderate strain, the I=2 Dirac cone splits into two degenerate I=1 Dirac cones, and saddle points with a linear Dirac spectrum emerge in the bright exciton dispersion. Interestingly, after binding an extra electron, the charged exciton becomes a massive Dirac particle associated with a large valley Hall effect protected from intervalley scattering. Our results point to unique opportunities to study Dirac physics, with exciton's optical addressability at specifiable momentum, energy and pseudospin. The strain-tunable valley-orbit coupling also implies new structures of exciton condensates, new functionalities of excitonic circuits, and possibilities for mechanical control of valley pseudospin.
Explore related subjects
Keep this discovery
Hongyi Yu, Guibin Liu, Pu Gong, Xiaodong Xu, Wang Yao. 2014-01-03. Bright excitons in monolayer transition metal dichalcogenides: from Dirac cones to Dirac saddle points. https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms4876
Cite the original work for its findings. Save a collection to share your selection of sources.