Proximity-enhanced valley Zeeman splitting at the WS2/graphene interface

The valley Zeeman physics of excitons in monolayer transition metal dichalcogenides provides valuable insight into the spin and orbital degrees of freedom inherent to these materials. Being atomically-thin materials, these degrees of freedom can be influenced by the presence of adjacent layers, due to proximity interactions that arise from wave function overlap across the 2D interface. Here, we report 60 T magnetoreflection spectroscopy of the A-and B-excitons in monolayer WS2, systematically encapsulated in monolayer graphene. While the observed variations of the valley Zeeman effect for the A-exciton are qualitatively in accord with expectations from the bandgap reduction and modification of the exciton binding energy due to the graphene-induced dielectric screening, the valley Zeeman effect for the B-exciton behaves markedly different. We investigate prototypical WS2/graphene stacks employing first-principles calculations and find that the lower conduction band of WS2 at the K/K' valleys (the CB- band) is strongly influenced by the graphene layer on the orbital level. Specifically, our detailed microscopic analysis reveals that the conduction band at the Q point of WS2 mediates the coupling between CB- and graphene due to resonant energy conditions and strong coupling to the Dirac cone. This leads to variations in the valley Zeeman physics of the B-exciton, consistent with the experimental observations. Our results therefore expand the consequences of proximity effects in multilayer semiconductor stacks, showing that wave function hybridization can be a multi-step energetically resonant process, with different bands mediating the interlayer interactions. Such effects can be further exploited to resonantly engineer the spin-valley degrees of freedom in van der Waals and moire heterostructures.

Automated summary

The valley Zeeman physics of excitons in monolayer transition metal dichalcogenides can provide insights into the spin and orbital degrees of freedom in these materials. The presence of adjacent layers can influence these degrees of freedom due to proximity interactions across the 2D interface. Encapsulating monolayer WS2 in monolayer graphene, we observed variations in the valley Zeeman effect for A-exciton, consistent with expectations from bandgap reduction and graphene-induced dielectric screening. However, the valley Zeeman effect for B-exciton behaved differently and was found to be influenced by the lower conduction band of WS2 at the K/K' valleys.