Control of the exciton valley dynamics in atomically thin semiconductors by tailoring the environment

Abstract

The exciton valley dynamics in van der Waals heterostructures with transition metal dichalcogenides monolayers is driven by the long-range exchange interaction between the electron and the hole in the exciton. It couples the states active in the opposite circular polarizations resulting in the longitudinal-transverse splitting of excitons propagating in the monolayer plane. Here we study theoretically the effect of the dielectric environment on the long-range exchange interaction and demonstrate how the encapsulation in the hexagonal boron nitride modifies the exciton longitudinal-transverse splitting. We calculate the exciton spin/valley polarization relaxation due to the long-range exchange interaction and demonstrate that the variation of the monolayer environment results in significant, up to five-fold, enhancement of the exciton valley polarization lifetime.