Van der waals engineering of valley polarization in WSe2 via kagome V2O3 monolayer heterostructure through magnetic proximity effect
To achieve a robust valley splitting in transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) at zero magnetic field is a challenging and elusive goal for valleytronic and spintronic devices. Therefore, in the current study, using the first principles calculations, we introduce an oxide-driven valleytronic platform by employing a two-dimensional ferromagnetic oxide (V2O3) as a magnetic proximity partner for WSe2. We found that the intrinsic ferromagnetism of V2O3 induces a prominent and spontaneous valley splitting of ~ 10.41 meV in WSe2. This pronounced valley polarization mainly originates from the strong interfacial exchange coupling interaction and charge redistribution mediated by V 3d electrons, coupled with the intrinsic spin-orbit coupling of WSe2. Interestingly, this value is significantly greater than the previously reported value for CrI3/WSe2, which corresponds to an effective magnetic field of ~ 10 T. Besides, we also have a high Curie temperature of 500 K, and an out-of-plane magnetic anisotropy energy (MAE) of 0.31 meV, indicating that this oxide-based heterostructure can also be used for near-room temperature operation. Importantly, under the external electric field with a step of 0.1 eV/{\AA}, the ferromagnetism is preserved and an enhancement in Curie temperature and MAE makes this oxide-based heterostructure more valuable for the next generation valleytronic devices. Therefore, these findings establish a new paradigm for realizing tunable, robust, and magnetic field-free valleytronic and spintronic devices for this oxide-based heterostructure. Moreover, this concept can be generalized to other correlated oxide-based TMD systems, providing a versatile strategy for next-generation quantum and functional materials.