Temperature dependence of exciton recombination in semiconducting single-wall carbon nanotubes

We study the excitonic recombination dynamics in an ensemble of (9,4) semiconducting single-wall carbon nanotubes by high sensitivity time-resolved photo-luminescence experiments. Measurements from cryogenic to room temperature allow us to identify two main contributions to the recombination dynamics. The initial fast decay is temperature independent and is attributed to the presence of small residual bundles that create external non-radiative relaxation channels. The slow component shows a strong temperature dependence and is dominated by non-radiative processes down to 40 K. We propose a quantitative phenomenological modeling of the variations of the integrated photoluminescence intensity over the whole temperature range. We show that the luminescence properties of carbon nanotubes at room temperature are not affected by the dark/bright excitonic state coupling

Exciton fine structure and spin decoherence in monolayers of transition metal dichalcogenides

We study the neutral exciton energy spectrum fine structure and its spin dephasing in transition metal dichalcogenides such as MoS$_2$. The interaction of the mechanical exciton with its macroscopic longitudinal electric field is taken into account. The splitting between the longitudinal and transverse excitons is calculated by means of the both electrodynamical approach and $\mathbf k \cdot \mathbf p$ perturbation theory. This long-range exciton exchange interaction can induce valley polarization decay. The estimated exciton spin dephasing time is in the picosecond range, in agreement with available experimental data.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figure

Giant spin-dependent photo-conductivity in GaAsN dilute nitride semiconductor

A theoretical and experimental study of the spin-dependent photoconductivity in dilute Nitride GaAsN is presented. The non linear transport model we develop here is based on the rate equations for electrons, holes, deep paramagnetic and non paramagnetic centers both under CW and pulsed optical excitation. Emphasis is given to the effect of the competition between paramagnetic centers and non paramagnetic centers which allows us to reproduce the measured characteristics of the spin-dependent recombination power dependence. Particular attention is paid to the role of an external magnetic field in Voigt geometry. The photoconductivity exhibits a Hanle-type curve whereas the spin polarization of electrons shows two superimposed Lorentzian curves with different widths, respectively related to the recombination of free and trapped electrons. The model is capable of reproducing qualitatively and quantitatively the most important features of photoluminescence and photocurrent experiments and is helpful in providing insight on the various mechanisms involved in the electron spin polarization and filtering in GaAsN semiconductors.Comment: 10 pages, 5 figure

Measurement of heavy-hole spin dephasing in (InGa)As quantum dots

We measure the spin dephasing of holes localized in self-assembled (InGa)As quantum dots by spin noise spectroscopy. The localized holes show a distinct hyperfine interaction with the nuclear spin bath despite the p-type symmetry of the valence band states. The experiments reveal a short spin relaxation time {\tau}_{fast}^{hh} of 27 ns and a second, long spin relaxation time {\tau}_{slow}^{hh} which exceeds the latter by more than one order of magnitude. The two times are attributed to heavy hole spins aligned perpendicular and parallel to the stochastic nuclear magnetic field. Intensity dependent measurements and numerical simulations reveal that the long relaxation time is still obscured by light absorption, despite low laser intensity and large detuning. Off-resonant light absorption causes a suppression of the spin noise signal due to the creation of a second hole entailing a vanishing hole spin polarization.Comment: accepted to be published in AP

Exciton Valley Dynamics probed by Kerr Rotation in WSe2 Monolayers

We have experimentally studied the pump-probe Kerr rotation dynamics in WSe$_2$ monolayers. This yields a direct measurement of the exciton valley depolarization time $\tau_v$. At T=4K, we find $\tau_v\approx 6$ps, a fast relaxation time resulting from the strong electron-hole Coulomb exchange interaction in bright excitons. The exciton valley depolarization time decreases significantly when the lattice temperature increases with $\tau_v$ being as short as 1.5ps at 125K. The temperature dependence is well explained by the developed theory taking into account the exchange interaction and a fast exciton scattering time on short-range potentials.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figure

Carrier and polarization dynamics in monolayer MoS2

In monolayer MoS2 optical transitions across the direct bandgap are governed by chiral selection rules, allowing optical valley initialization. In time resolved photoluminescence (PL) experiments we find that both the polarization and emission dynamics do not change from 4K to 300K within our time resolution. We measure a high polarization and show that under pulsed excitation the emission polarization significantly decreases with increasing laser power. We find a fast exciton emission decay time on the order of 4ps. The absence of a clear PL polarization decay within our time resolution suggests that the initially injected polarization dominates the steady state PL polarization. The observed decrease of the initial polarization with increasing pump photon energy hints at a possible ultrafast intervalley relaxation beyond the experimental ps time resolution. By compensating the temperature induced change in bandgap energy with the excitation laser energy an emission polarization of 40% is recovered at 300K, close to the maximum emission polarization for this sample at 4K.Comment: 7 pages, 7 figures including supplementary materia

Splitting between Bright and Dark excitons in Transition Metal Dichalcogenide Monolayers

The optical properties of transition metal dichalcogenide monolayers such as the two-dimensional semiconductors MoS$_2$ and WSe$_2$ are dominated by excitons, Coulomb bound electron-hole pairs. The light emission yield depends on whether the electron-hole transitions are optically allowed (bright) or forbidden (dark). By solving the Bethe Salpeter Equation on top of $GW$ wave functions in density functional theory calculations, we determine the sign and amplitude of the splitting between bright and dark exciton states. We evaluate the influence of the spin-orbit coupling on the optical spectra and clearly demonstrate the strong impact of the intra-valley Coulomb exchange term on the dark-bright exciton fine structure splitting.Comment: 6 pages, 2 figure