Spontaneous Valley Splitting and Valley Pseudospin Field Effect Transistor of Monolayer VAgP2Se6

TL;DR

This paper predicts spontaneous valley splitting in monolayer VAgP2Se6 due to spin-orbit coupling and magnetic order, enabling permanent valley polarization and potential valleytronic device applications.

Contribution

It introduces the first-principles prediction of spontaneous valley Zeeman splitting in VAgP2Se6, facilitating valley polarization without external fields.

Findings

Spontaneous valley Zeeman splitting in VAgP2Se6 monolayer.

Potential for circularly polarized photon emission and absorption.

Design of a valley pseudospin field effect transistor (VPFET).

Abstract

Valleytronics is a rising topic to explore the emergent degree of freedom for charge carriers in energy band edges and has attracted a great interest due to many intriguing quantum phenomena and potential application in information processing industry. Creation of permanent valley polarization, i.e. unbalanced occupation at different valleys, is a chief challenge and also urgent question to be solved in valleytronics. Here we predict that the spin-orbit coupling and magnetic ordering allow spontaneous valley Zeeman-type splitting in pristine monolayer of VAgP2Se6 by using first-principles calculations. The Zeeman-type valley splitting can lead to permanent valley polarization after suitable doping. The Zeeman-type valley splitting is similar to the role of spin polarization in spintronics and is a vital requirement for practical devices in valleytronics. The nonequivalent valleys of VAgP2Se6 monolayer can emit or absorb circularly polarized photons with opposite chirality, and thus this material shows a great potential to work as a photonic spin filter and circularly-polarized-light resource. A valley pseudospin field effect transistor (VPFET) is designed based on the monolayer VAgP2Se6 akin to the spin field effect transistors. Beyond common transistors, VPFETs carry information of not only the electrons but also the valley pseudospins.