2021/08/12 by Kai Hao, Hao, Kai, Robert Shreiner +3 · 3 citations
Materials Science · Physics and Astronomy · #2D Materials and Applications #Advanced Condensed Matter Physics #Electronic and Structural Properties of Oxides #FOS: Physical sciences #Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall) #cond-mat.mes-hall
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2108.05931
arxiv created 2021/08/12 · openalex publication_date 2021/08/12 · arxiv updated 2021/08/16 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Electronic states in two-dimensional layered materials can exhibit a remarkable variety of correlated phases including Wigner-crystals, Mott insulators, charge density waves, and superconductivity. Recent experimental and theoretical research has indicated that ferromagnetic phases can exist in electronically-doped transition metal dichalcogenide (TMD) semiconductors, but a stable magnetic state at zero magnetic field has eluded detection. Here, we experimentally demonstrate that mesoscopic ferromagnetic order can be generated and controlled by local optical pumping in monolayer WSe2 at zero applied magnetic field. In a spatially resolved pump-probe experiment, we use polarization-resolved reflectivity from excitonic states as a probe of charge-carrier spin polarization. When the sample is electron-doped at density ne = 1012 cm-2, we observe that a local, circularly-polarized, microwatt-power optical pump breaks the symmetry between equivalent ferromagnetic spin configurations and creates magnetic order which extends over mesoscopic regions as large as 8 um x 5 um, bounded by sample edges and folds in the 2D semiconductor. The experimental signature of magnetic order is circular dichroism (CD) in reflectivity from the excitonic states, with magnitude exceeding 20% at resonant wavelengths. The helicity of the pump determines the orientation of the magnetic state, which can be aligned along the two principle out-of-plane axes. In contrast to previous studies in 2D materials that have required non-local, slowly varying magnetic fields to manipulate magnetic phases, the demonstrated capability to control long-range magnetism and corresponding strong CD with local and tunable optical pumps is highly versatile. This discovery will unlock new TMD-based spin and optical technologies and enable sophisticated control of correlated electron phases in two-dimensional electron gases (2DEGs).