Ab initio calculations of spin-nonconserving exciton-phonon scattering in monolayer transition metal dichalcogenides

TL;DR

This study uses ab initio methods to analyze how phonons induce spin-flip relaxation in excitons within monolayer transition metal dichalcogenides, revealing effective magnetic fields and temperature-dependent relaxation times.

Contribution

It introduces a combined GW-Bethe-Salpeter and density functional perturbation theory approach to quantify spin-nonconserving exciton-phonon interactions in 2D materials.

Findings

Phonons can generate effective in-plane magnetic fields causing spin flips.

Spin-flip relaxation times depend on temperature.

The method can be applied to other 2D materials.

Abstract

We investigate the spin-nonconserving relaxation channel of excitons by their couplings with phonons in two-dimensional transition metal dichalcogenides using $\textit{ab initio}$ approaches. Combining $\text{GW}$-Bethe-Salpeter equation method and density functional perturbation theory, we calculate the electron-phonon and exciton-phonon coupling matrix elements for the spin-flip scattering in monolayer WSe$_{\text{2}}$, and further analyze the microscopic mechanisms influencing these scattering strengths. We find that phonons could produce effective in-plane magnetic fields which flip spin of excitons, giving rise to relaxation channels complimentary to the spin-conserving relaxation. Finally, we calculate temperature-dependent spin-flip exciton-phonon relaxation times. Our method and analysis can be generalized to study other two-dimensional materials and would stimulate experimental measurements of spin-flip exciton relaxation dynamics.