Chirality-dependent unidirectional routing of WS2 valley photons in a nanocircuit

Valleytronics is a promising candidate to address low-energy signal transport on chip, leveraging the valley pseudospin of electrons as a new degree of freedom to encode, process and store information(1-7). However, valley-carrier nanocircuitry is still elusive, because it essentially requires valley transport that overcomes three simultaneous challenges: high fidelity, high directionality and room-temperature operation. Here we experimentally demonstrate a nanophotonic circuit that can route valley indices of a WS2 monolayer unidirectionally via the chirality of photons. Two propagating modes are supported in the gap area ofthe circuit and interfere with each other to generate beating patterns, which exhibit complementary profiles for circular dipoles of different handedness. Based on the spin-dependent beating patterns, we showcase valley fidelity of chiral photons up to 98%, and the circulation directionality is measured to be 0.44 +/- 0.04 at room temperature. The proposed nanocircuit can not only enable the construction of large-scale valleytronic networks but also serve as an interactive interface to integrate valleytronics(3-5), spintronics(8-10 )and integrated photonics(11-13), opening new possibilities for hybrid spin-valley-photon ecosystems at the nanoscale.

Automated summary

Valleytronics, a promising technology for energy-efficient signal transport on chip, faces challenges in achieving high-fidelity, high-directionality, and room-temperature valley transport. In this study, a nanophotonic circuit is demonstrated to unidirectionally route valley indices using the chirality of photons, with 98% valley fidelity and a circulation directionality of 0.44 +/- 0.04 at room temperature. This research opens up possibilities for large-scale valleytronic networks and hybrid spin-valley-photon ecosystems at the nanoscale.