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Exploiting the valley degrees of freedom as information carriers provides new opportunities for the development of valleytronics. Monolayer transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) with broken space-inversion symmetry exhibit emerging valley pseudospins, making them ideal platforms for studying valley electronics. However, intervalley scattering of different energy valleys limits the achievable degree of valley polarization. Here, we constructed WSe2/yttrium iron garnet (YIG) heterostructures and demonstrated that the interfacial magnetic exchange effect on the YIG magnetic substrate can enhance valley polarization by up to 63%, significantly higher than that of a monolayer WSe2 on SiO2/Si (11%). Additionally, multiple sharp exciton peaks appear in the WSe2/YIG heterostructures due to the strong magnetic proximity effect at the magnetic–substrate interface that enhances exciton emission efficiency. Moreover, under the effect of external magnetic field, the magnetic direction of the magnetic substrate enhances valley polarization, further demonstrating that the magnetic proximity effect regulates valley polarization. Our results provide a new way to regulate valley polarization and demonstrate the promising application of magnetic heterojunctions in magneto-optoelectronics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Moiré superlattices in van der Waals structures have emerged as a powerful platform for studying the novel quantum properties of two-dimensional materials. The periodic moiré patterns generated by these structures lead to the formation of flat mini-bands, which alter the electronic energy bands of the material. The resulting flat electronic bands can greatly enhance strong correlative interactions between electrons, leading to the emergence of exotic quantum phenomena, including moiré phonons and moiré excitons. While extensive research has been conducted on the exotic quantum phenomena in twisted bilayers of transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs), and the regulatory effect of stacked layers on moiré excitons remains unexplored. In this study, we report the fabrication of a twisted WSe2/WSe2/WSe2 homotrilayer with two twist angles and investigate the influence of stacked layers on moiré excitons. Our experiments reveal multiple moiré exciton splitting peaks in the twisted trilayer, with moiré potential depths of 78 and 112 meV in the bilayer and trilayer homostructures, respectively. We also observed the splitting of the moiré excitons at 90 K, indicating the presence of a deeper moiré potential in the twisted trilayer. Moreover, we demonstrate that stacked layers can tune the moiré excitons by manipulating temperature, laser power, and magnetic field. Our results provide a new physical model for studying moiré superlattices and their quantum properties, which could potentially pave the way for the development of quantum optoelectronics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, the discovery of a variety of moiré-related properties in the twisted vertical stacking of two different monolayers has attracted considerable attention. The introduction of small twist angles in transition metal dichalcogenide (TMD) heterostructures leads to the emergence of moiré potentials, which provide a fascinating platform for the study of strong interactions of electrons. While there has been extensive research on moiré excitons in twisted bilayer superlattices, the capture and study of moiré excitons in homostructure superlattices with layer-coupling effects remain elusive. Here, we present the observation of moiré excitons in the twisted 1L-WSe2/1L-WSe2 and 1L-WSe2/2L-WSe2 homostructures with various layer-coupling interactions. The results reveal that the moiré potential increases (~ 260%) as the number of underlying layers decreases, indicating the effect of layer coupling on the modulation of the moiré potential. The effects of the temperature and laser power dependence as well as valley polarization on moiré excitons were further demonstrated, and the crucial spectral features observed were explained. Our findings pave the way for exploring quantum phenomena and related applications of quantum information. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The formation of moiré superlattices in twisted van der Waals (vdW) homostructures provides a versatile platform for designing the electronic band structure of two-dimensional (2D) materials. In graphene and transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) moiré systems, twist angle has been shown to be a key parameter for regulating the moiré superlattice. However, the effect of the modulation of the twist angle on moiré potential and interlayer coupling has not been the subject of experimental investigation. Here, we report the observation of the modulation of moiré potential and intralayer excitons in the WS2/WS2 homostructure. By accurately adjusting the torsion angle of the homobilayers, the depth of the moiré potential can be modulated. The confinement effect of the moiré potential on the intralayer excitons was further demonstrated by the changing of temperature and valley polarization. Furthermore, we show that a detection of atomic reconstructions by the low-frequency Raman mapping to map out inhomogeneities in moiré lattices on a large scale, which endows the uniformity of interlayer coupling. Our results provide insights for an in-depth understanding of the behaviors of moiré excitons in the twisted van der Waals homostructure, and promote the study of electrical engineering and topological photonics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Solid-state electrical conducting materials can be roughly categorized as superconductors, conductors, and semiconductors, depending on their conducting carriers, resistance, and band structures. This research reports the discovery of super-semiconductors, whose resistivity is 3–10 orders of magnitude lower than conventional semiconductors at room temperature. In addition, there is a transition from a metal state to a super-semiconducting state at near room temperatures, which is accompanied by an increase in hole carrier density and the mobility increase in electrons. For the first time, a hole-dominated carrier metal is observed in nanostructured bimetallic arrays near room temperature, and no other special conditions are required. Such a behavior is due to the generation of hot electrons and holes induced by metal plasmon resonance in the infrared range in the nanostructured bimetallic arrays. Our research empowers metals with semiconductor features and paves the way to realize ultra-low-power metal-based semiconductor devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The excitonic effects in two-dimensional transition metal dichalcogenides and their heterostructures have been extensively investigated. Significantly, the moiré excitons, induced by a moiré superlattice in a twisted heterostructure, have triggered tremendous attention, demonstrating the practicability of artificial excitonic crystals. Besides, recent works have shown that the excitonic states in homostructures also exhibit novel properties worthy of further development. Here, we present a tear-and-stack technique for fabricating a regular or a twisted homostructure. Such a strategy was utilized to reassemble a monolayer WSe2 into a twisted homostructure, and various excitons from this structure have been identified in the photoluminescence spectra. Interestingly, the unusual equidistant splitting was first observed in the defect-bound excitons. It is believed that this phenomenon is attributed to the various defect states and the local stacking patterns. This interpretation is supported by theoretical calculations, which show the dependence of the energy band structure on different defect states and local stacking patterns. These unconventional defect-bound excitons are key building blocks in the research of homostructures that highlight the feasibility of artificially manipulating local excitons for practical applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights: The recent progress of spin injection, spin transport, spin manipulation, and application in 2D materials was summarized. The current challenges and outlook of future studies in spintronics based on 2D materials and related heterostructures were discussed. Spintronics, exploiting the spin degree of electrons as the information vector, is an attractive field for implementing the beyond Complemetary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) devices. Recently, two-dimensional (2D) materials have been drawing tremendous attention in spintronics owing to their distinctive spin-dependent properties, such as the ultra-long spin relaxation time of graphene and the spin–valley locking of transition metal dichalcogenides. Moreover, the related heterostructures provide an unprecedented probability of combining the different characteristics via proximity effect, which could remedy the limitation of individual 2D materials. Hence, the proximity engineering has been growing extremely fast and has made significant achievements in the spin injection and manipulation. Nevertheless, there are still challenges toward practical application; for example, the mechanism of spin relaxation in 2D materials is unclear, and the high-efficiency spin gating is not yet achieved. In this review, we focus on 2D materials and related heterostructures to systematically summarize the progress of the spin injection, transport, manipulation, and application for information storage and processing. We also highlight the current challenges and future perspectives on the studies of spintronic devices based on 2D materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]