Rich many-body phase diagram of electrons and holes in doped monolayer transition metal dichalcogenides

TL;DR

This study maps the complex many-body phase diagram of electrons and holes in doped monolayer transition metal dichalcogenides, revealing four main phases influenced by density, substrate dielectric, and magnetic fields.

Contribution

It introduces a variational approach to identify and characterize four distinct many-body phases in doped monolayer TMDs, including effects of magnetic fields and substrate properties.

Findings

Four main phases identified with distinct spin and valley polarizations

First-order phase transitions separate the phases

Magnetic fields induce additional valley-polarized phase in MoS₂

Abstract

We use a variational technique to study the many-body phase diagram of electrons and holes in $n$-doped and $p$-doped monolayer transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs). We find a total of four different phases. $i$) A fully spin polarized and valley polarized ferromagnetic state. $ii$) A state with no global spin polarization but with spin polarization in each valley separately, i.e. spin-valley locking. $iii$) A state with spin polarization in one of the valleys and little to no spin polarization in the other valley. $iv$) A paramagnetic state with no valley polarization. These phases are separated by first-order phase transitions and are determined by the particle density and the dielectric constant of the substrate. We find that in the presence of a perpendicular magnetic field the four different phases persist. In the case of $n$-doped MoS$_2$, a fifth phase, which is completely valley polarized but not spin polarized, appears for magnetic fields larger than 7 T and for magnetic fields larger than 23 T completely replaces the second phase.