Ultrafast Field-driven Valley Polarization of Transition Metal Dichalcogenide Quantum Dots

TL;DR

This paper theoretically investigates how ultrashort circularly polarized pulses induce ultrafast valley polarization in transition metal dichalcogenide quantum dots, revealing size-dependent behaviors influenced by material properties.

Contribution

It introduces a theoretical model for electron dynamics in TMDC quantum dots under ultrafast optical excitation, highlighting size and material effects on valley polarization.

Findings

Valley polarization can be generated ultrafast in TMDC quantum dots.

Size and material significantly influence the polarization behavior.

Polarization exhibits both monotonic and nonmonotonic size dependence.

Abstract

We study theoretically the electron dynamics of transition metal dichalcogenide quantum dots in the field of an ultrashort and ultrafast circularly polarized optical pulse. The quantum dots have the shape of a disk and their electron systems are described within an effective model with infinite mass boundary conditions. Similar to transition metal dichalcogenide monolayers, a circularly polarized pulse generates ultrafast valley polarization of such quantum dots. The dependence of the valley polarization on the size of the dot is sensitive to the dot material and, for different materials, show both monotonic increase with the dot radius and nonmonotonic behavior with a local maximum at a finite dot radius.